O’Brien defends housing plan amid criticism from experts

Housing minister Darragh O'Brien says that the aims in the Housing for All plan are 'realistic' and 'achievable'. Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins

Housing minister Darragh O’Brien has strongly defended his Housing for All plan after a number of leading experts claimed the targets contained in it were unrealistic.

Mr O’Brien has said that “a lot of preparation” went into setting the targets in the plan, which promises to build 9,500 social houses each year.

“They’re challenging for us, they have to be challenging, but also they’re realistic too, and they are achievable,” he said of the building targets.

"We have focused on new builds, which are particularly where we want to go, to get out of leasing and to get back into new builds, and that’s what we plan to do.

Of course, as minister, I’m responsible for the plan. I’m proud of the plan actually, and we want to see implementation on it.”

Mr O’Brien was reacting to comments made by housing expert and architect Mel Reynolds, who dubbed the targets “unrealistic”.

Mr Reynolds pointed out that little over 12% of that target had been met by December last year. He added that, in the four and a half years to 2020, just 4,326 social homes were built.

“For local authorities to be building that level of new homes on their own land, they would need to have started approving these a year and a half ago, because there is an 18-month, four-stage approval process, which hasn’t happened yet,” he told a virtual conference hosted by the Simon Communities of Ireland as part of Simon Week 2021.

"In the next year or two, we’re not going to see any significant change from current housing policy."

Lecturer and social housing analyst Lorcan Sirr told the conference: “If the measure of success of Housing for All is increasing supply, the plan won’t work. It needs to be the right supply, in the right place, and at the right time.”

Lorcan Sirr.

Architect Orla Hegarty said the Government needed to move away from the “supply, supply, supply mantra”, and look at the issue of affordability.

Separately, the minister insisted that “nothing is off the table” when it comes to finalising the mica redress scheme for homeowners whose properties are crumbling due to defective blocks.

Mr O’Brien said he was working on a plan that was “deliverable”.

He said it would be a significant improvement on the original scheme.

It comes as campaigners from the Mica Action Group said officials in the Department of Housing had confirmed to them that they will not be advising the Government to provide 100% redress for every home affected by the defective building blocks.

Asked whether he was prepared to overrule officials in his department, Mr O’Brien said: “I haven’t received any formal recommendations from department officials, and I try to work in a collaborative way with them, but at the end of the day, I as minister will make recommendations to my Cabinet colleagues, not my officials.”

He said he would be bringing forward details in the coming weeks, but added that the revised scheme “will require significant increased investment from the exchequer”.

“I’ve also said before that I think those responsible and other sectors will need to have to pay towards it too, and that’s something that I feel very, very strongly about,” said Mr O’Brien.