Housing figures 'turned out to be a complete fabrication', Holly Cairns tells Social Democrats conference

Ms Cairns's speech follows the party’s recent policy launch for a State construction company and the creation of modular homes factories to 'ramp up supply'

Holly Cairns: 'A key focus of this year’s conference is housing.' Picture: Gareth Chaney

Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns has criticised the Government's "dishonesty" on housing targets, stating “we cannot accept this as normal” in elections.

The CSO recently announced the completion of 36,284 homes in 2025, falling significantly short of the Government's original target of 41,000.

At the party's national conference in Cork, Ms Cairns said government policies are “not working" and "failing”. She said a step change is needed.

“Every week, we get into the chamber and bring forward solutions. They either say, ‘you don’t have any solutions,' or, 'it would take too long to set them up,'” she said.

“We’re into the second term of an almost identical government.”

The conference, the first to be held outside of Dublin, at the Clayton Springs Hotel in Cork City, saw some 400 registered members in attendance. Ms Cairns used her speech to say housing figures spoken about by ministers “turned out to be a complete fabrication”.

“A key focus of this year’s conference is housing. Opinion polls [in Friday’s Irish Times] showed a massive dissatisfaction and disbelief with this Government’s ability to address housing in a timely manner,” Ms Cairns said.

“I think we are really feeling that on the ground in our constituencies."

People are beginning to completely despair and lose hope, so this conference is about solutions because there is a way out of the choices that got us into this crisis, and the right one will get us out

It follows the party’s recent policy launch for a State construction company and the creation of modular homes factories to “ramp up supply".

She added that if the Government had implemented the homes for Ireland savings scheme when asked, it “would be ready to go now".

By-elections

Another focus from the weekend was the by-elections scheduled for May in Galway West and Dublin Central, to replace President Catherine Connolly and former finance minister Paschal Donohoe.

The Social Democrats will be running Míde Nic Fhionnlaoich for Galway West and Daniel Ennis in Dublin Central.

When asked about how the left opposition arrangement will work in the two by-elections, Ms Cairns said it is “the nature of politics”.

"We know there isn't going to be a single-party government in any near future and, while we have more in common with parties of the left, we are very much our own party. That’s why the Social Democrats exist," she said.

“When I say we want to see a left-led government, our focus is that we want to see that as socially democratic as possible. It is very clear this is to elect as many Soc Dems as possible, as we want to enter government with as strong a mandate as possible.”

When asked if the party had learned how to handle internal conflict following the Eoin Hayes affair over revelations of his ownership of shares in Palantir, Ms Cairns said that, while every political party has "different things they encounter", she was "really happy about how [the party] responded to them".