We’re seeing step change in housing delivery, says minister

Ireland’s housing minister has said there has been a “step change” in housing delivery this year compared with the previous 10 years, and that his plan has “taken hold”.

Darragh O’Brien also said the Government will reach its overall target of delivering 10,500 social homes through various methods of bringing properties on to the market by the end of the year.

“I’m still confident that we’re going to be able to hit that overall target,” he told reporters in Dublin.

“We set a target this year of 24,600 new homes – both public, private and affordable, through all different tenures – and we’re going to exceed that target significantly this year, even though we’ve had a difficult year.

“So, you know, we’re doing quite well.

“We will have a good year for delivery this year.

“We’re never going to turn this around in two years, no question about that, but what I am genuinely positive about is that the plan itself has taken hold. We have a good pipeline into next year,” he said.

The Government has come under increasing pressure this year to solve the years-long housing crisis while also trying to provide suitable accommodation for arriving Ukrainian refugees.

The official homeless figures have reached record highs for three consecutive months, with the latest figure of 10,975 being recorded in September.

Under criticism from opposition parties, Taoiseach Micheal Martin has defended his Government’s plan as the “only detailed, comprehensive strategy” to solve Ireland’s housing crisis.

Asked about the record high homeless figures on Tuesday, Mr O’Brien said there are still “significant challenges”.

“The first people I think about every single morning when we get up are those in homeless services, and those who we want to be able to provide permanent homes for.”

He said he has directed local authorities to purchase more homes with the tenants in situ, and claimed that this has resulted in an increase, but did not give an exact figure.

“In that period of time, we’ve seen a significant increase,” he said.

“And that’s increasing every day where we’re bringing more homes in.”

Mr O’Brien also said he is not thinking about extending the evictions ban because he is more interested in increasing the supply of accommodation through the state.

“I’ve been very critical in opposition in relation to the previous government’s housing policy as well. We’re dealing with 10 to 12 years of under delivery, but thankfully we’re seeing a step change this year in relation to housing delivery,” he said.

“We’re going to deliver affordable homes for the first time pretty much in the generation.

“If you take, for example, the First Homes Scheme, we’ve had 640 approvals under that scheme already, and that only launched in July.

“We’re going to deliver more new-build social homes than we’ve done in decades.

“I’m not going to speculate on where we’re going to end at the end of the year, and the reason for that is the last quarter is a very strong quarter for delivery.”

It comes as national housing charity the Peter McVerry Trust revealed that it helped 10,000 people last year, which an almost 30% increase on the same figures from the year before.

Speaking at the launch of its annual report, Peter McVerry Trust CEO Pat Doyle said the increase was mostly due to being invited by local authorities to collaborate on projects.

“I was down in Kerry yesterday, we’re bringing in 33 units in Kerry before Christmas and we weren’t in Kerry a year ago.

“We got word this morning that we got approval for 12 units in Limerick in Mallow Street.

“That’s an old (Office of Public Works) OPW building, so that’s another angle under Housing for All that we’re taking old public service buildings and bringing them back.”

He said that regeneration projects such projects as the one in Rathmines in Dublin could be the key to eliminating homelessness.

“I think we have a real opportunity to eliminate homelessness in rural Ireland by non-used buildings, empty buildings, vacant buildings, old commercial buildings, and then in the cities, then we need multiples of this.

“And the really good thing about this, it’s an existing structure so it was much easier much quicker on the planning.”

However, Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald claimed the government will miss its social and affordable housing targets for the third year in a row.

“You promised 9,000 social homes this year by the end of June, you had delivered only 1,765. You promised 4,100 affordable homes this year. You have delivered only 925 today,” Ms McDonald told the Dail.

“Meanwhile, homelessness is at a historic high. Even with the ban on evictions, it is likely to rise. Child homelessness has increased by a staggering 51% since April 2021.

“So it is beggars belief that any member of government could claim that your housing policies are working.”

She also claimed that the government has underspent its housing capital budget by two billion euro.

“Two billion euros sitting there, while people watch housing prices go through the roof and know that they have no chance of affording their own home,” Ms McDonald added.

“While young mothers and fathers and their children squeeze into the box rooms of their own parents’ homes, while families languished for years and years on council housing waiting lists.”

However, this was denied by the Minister by Public Expenditure Michael McGrath.

“It is always the case that the final quarter of the year is the period in which there is the largest delivery,” he added.

“That is when schemes get closed out, that’s when accounts get done, that is when draw-down payments happen. So there will be no such underspend in relation to housing capital this year.”

He also said that the government is expected to reach its target in building social housing.

He added: “We currently estimate we will build about 8,000 new homes, but that will be supplemented by purchases of new homes, by leases of new homes.

“That will, in our view, bring us close if not in a position to reach the overall target of 10,500 of social housing additions to the stock in 2022, which is the highest number in this country for a long number of years.”