Housing minister criticised for 'fleeing the country' amid backlash over new housing plan
The Delivering Homes, Building Communities plan promises 300,000 new homes by the end of 2030. Picture: Dan Linehan
The Government is “underestimating the overall housing need” and delivering a “punch in the gut for everyone without a home” following the publication of its new housing plan, the Dáil has heard.
During fiery exchanges at Leaders’ Questions, housing minister James Browne was accused of “fleeing the country” on Thursday evening to attend a housing conference in London rather than “debating with opposition spokespeople on television and radio.”
The Government unveiled its new housing plan in Dublin on Thursday morning.
The Delivering Homes, Building Communities plan promises 300,000 new homes by the end of 2030, meaning an average of 50,000 must be built each year.
The plan also pledges 12,000 new social homes annually, as well as a new ‘starter homes’ programme delivering 15,000 affordable housing supports each year.
However, the plan omits annual targets included in previous strategies.
During Leaders’ Questions, Labour’s housing spokesman Conor Sheehan said he had “never seen any government take so long to come up with so little.”
“This new plan tells us that you'll deliver 300,000 homes by 2030,” he said.
“You'll need a minor miracle to deliver 300,000 homes by 2030. You've abandoned targets for the private sector, and it's very clear that you've done this to shield yourself from accountability.
“The overall targets for this plan are wrong. They are too low and do not consider the inbuilt demand due to the housing deficit.
“The previous target for over 40,000 homes this year was a fiction. How is anyone expected to believe you will deliver 300,000 by 2030?
“The central bank projections are clear that only 36,000 homes will be delivered in 2026, and 40,000 in 2027.
“That leaves 200,000 homes to be built in the second half of this plan, and that is a doubling of current delivery with no sense that the private sector can or will do it.”
Sinn Féin’s housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin said the new plan “should have been a moment of hope for all those in need of affordable housing” but instead was “another punch in the gut for everyone without a home of their own.”
Holding up previous iterations of the Government’s housing plan, Mr Ó Broin said earlier promises had been “broken.”
“Once again, you are underestimating overall housing need, and as a result, the housing deficit will continue to grow,” he said.
Mr Ó Broin added that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have written a plan for big investors, while “the needs of ordinary people, workers, and families have once again been ignored.”
He also claimed Mr Browne “isn't staying to defend his own plan”, accusing him of “fleeing the country to speak at a housing conference in England” instead of facing opposition debate.
In response, the Tánaiste insisted that the Government was “significantly increasing investment directly in housebuilding.”
“We have seen in the first half of this year, completions for new homes at the highest they've been since 2008,” Mr Harris said.
“We have seen the number of new dwellings completed in the first three quarters of this year up 13% on the same period last year.”
Mr Harris also stated that Sinn Féin “want this plan to fail because you believe you will do well if our housing plan fails”.
“We intend to work every night and day to build houses, but you thrive off the misery and exploiting the intergenerational anxiety of others,” he added.
Mr Harris told Mr Sheehan that “there is no way the State is going to build all of the homes that our country requires”.
“There’s a target of delivering 300,000 more homes over the lifetime of the plan,” he said.
“Around 162,000 of those homes will either be social homes, local authority homes, or will be homes that are part-funded through a variety of government schemes.
“I think we'd also agree we're still going to need that private sector to build more homes as well, and that's where you're going to actually get the bulk of delivery.”
Social Democrats TD Cian O’Callaghan said the Government had pledged during last year’s general election that 40,000 homes would be built in 2024.
“That was a complete and utter fabrication, and now you're making your housing targets, your annual housing targets, disappear because you cannot stand over your record and you don't want accountability on it,” he said.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
