Taoiseach declines to say how much an affordable house should cost

Simon Harris says 'affordability very much varies depending on the person, depending on their circumstances'

Transport Minister Eamon Ryan, Taoiseach Simon Harris, and Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien at the Housing for All press conference in Government Buildings. Picture: Government Information Service

Taoiseach Simon Harris has declined to say how much an affordable house should be, saying that it varies depending on the person and their circumstances.

Asked how much he believed an affordable house should cost in Dublin, Mr Harris said: “These are the 'gotcha' questions that Deputy [Mary Lou] McDonald is looking to answer that I’m not going to answer.

“I think affordability very much varies depending on the person, depending on their circumstances, and the job of Government isn't to set a one-size-fits-all approach to housing.

“The job of Government is to provide a diversity and a range of options.

I’m not going to mislead the Irish people. There isn’t one single figure in relation to affordability because affordability varied depending on a person’s circumstances, depending on the composition of the family.

In December, Sinn Féin leader Ms McDonald said that there is a need for house prices to fall, saying that she believed the average price for a house in Dublin should land at €300,000.

The Taoiseach’s comments come as the Government launched its Housing For All Q1 2024 progress report, which details that there were 11,956 house commencements in the first three months of the year.

This is the highest number of house commencements since figures began in 2014, and an increase of 63% on the 7,349 commencements in the first three months of 2023.

The report was approved by Cabinet on Monday, alongside approval being granted for the continued waiver of development levies and the water connection charge rebate.

On updating housing targets, Mr Harris said that he believed that his promise at the recent Fine Gael ard fheis — that the Government would deliver 250,000 homes in the next five years — was roughly where he expects “the landing zone to be”.

Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien said he expected the Government would exceed its overall housing target for 2024 — which is set at 33,450 houses. Picture: Government Information Service

Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien told reporters that he expected the Government would exceed its overall housing target for 2024 — which is set at 33,450 houses.

“We intend to exceed that. The targets have never been ceilings under Housing for All. 

"If anything, they’ve been a floor because we’ve exceeded them right the way through,” Mr O’Brien said.

The minister also said that new revised housing targets, based on the National Planning Framework, ESRI data, and the upcoming housing commission report, would be drawn up by the autumn. 

It is expected that the housing commission will deliver its report in the coming weeks.

On the Government’s Planning and Development Bill, Mr O’Brien said that they would need “about a month” to prepare the final report stage of the landmark legislation, before it returns to the Dáil.

Mr O’Brien added that he had Government agreement that the bill should pass before the summer recess.