Housing strategy ‘not on scale required’ to solve crisis

The Government’s new housing strategy, released today, will “not be on the scale required” to fix the housing market crisis, according to Séan Healy, director of Social Justice Ireland.

The calls from the think-tank group came as it launched its pre-budget submission yesterday.

The group said capital funds need to be found to address the lack of social housing, and to fail to do so as a society would be “very fundamentally flawed”.

Mr Healy said Housing Minister Simon Coveney and the Government were “only pretending” they were going to deal with the scale of the reality, unless they plan to consider large investments from EU funds and off-balance-sheet options.

Ireland should apply for funding under the EU Structural Reform clause of the Growth and Stability Pact to tackle the housing crisis, said the SJI.

Short-term capital grants, which could be up to €1bn for Ireland, are available for countries to invest in infrastructure if it will save them money in the long term.

Mr Healy claimed the resource is “ready-made for the Irish social housing crisis” but that the Government has not examined it.

Dr Healy suggested the Government could set up a body to invest in social housing, off the State’s financial books. This “special housing vehicle” would be similar to Nama and be able to borrow money without Ireland falling foul of tight EU controls on State spending.

The resistance to taking the tough decisions to secure more funding for social housing was down to politicians who don’t know “the reality of the lives of people who are on waiting lists”, said Dr Healy.

SJI said Ireland needs to put resources into social housing and rural broadband before tax cuts to the well-off and concessions to “Brexit refugees” from London.

The Government’s focus on potential professional “Brexit refugees” moving to Dublin from London over the 90,000 families on the social housing waiting list would be very misplaced, it said.

SJI’s proposals on tax include committing multi-nationals to paying at least 6% on profits declared in Ireland, and to look into seeking back-payments on previous underpaid tax returns.