National Development Finance Agency outlines €1bn spend to address housing shortage

The Government agency set up to help address the chronic shortage of housing, which is driving up home prices and rents, yesterday detailed its €1bn plan to build more social housing, schools and health clinics.

The National Development Finance Agency, NDFA, an offshoot of the sovereign debt-issuing National Treasury Management Agency, said that so-called public-private partnerships (PPPs) which tap public and private funding to finance infrastructure projects will again feature large in the new plan.

PPPs were used by Government to help put together transport and some social housing projects in the last few years before the crash here.

In the UK, similar projects came under scrutiny for failing to deliver good value to taxpayers.

PPPs here dried up as Ireland’s sovereign credit rating collapsed during the crisis. Opposition politicians have long criticised the Coalition, claiming it has been slow to react to solving the shortage of housing that they say has led to homelessness and soaring housing costs.

The Government has in recent weeks responded with a whole raft of measures including partial rent controls and other measures designed to tackle the root of the problem, that too few homes are being built by the stricken construction sector to meet the demands of a rapidly growing economy.

And yesterday the head of the NDFA, an offshoot of the sovereign debt-issuing National Treasury Management Agency, outlined the measures it will take to help fill part of the infrastructure deficit.

Among the projects outlined by director Brian Murphy that will be advanced next year include:

• 1,500 social housing units to a value of €300m;
• Third-level institutions to a value of €200m;
• Courthouses and justice projects to a value of €150m;
• Community nursing and healthcare units to a value of €150m.

Mr Murphy said up to 540 social housing units will be “formally procured” in 2016, including projects on the Malahide Road, Scribblestown, and Corkagh Grange in Dublin; at Dunleer in Co Louth; at Convent Lands in Co Wicklow; and at Craddockstown in Naas in Co Kildare.

“PPPs have delivered highest quality, value for money infrastructure for Irish taxpayer for more than a decade, with projects delivered consistently on time and on budget,” Mr Murphy said.

However, he warned that “it will be necessary to monitor costs stringently as potential capacity constraints arise in the construction industry.”