Irish Examiner view: Ukraine situation highlights the savage reality of Ireland's housing crisis

Ireland needs to build at least 33,000 homes a year just to meet domestic demand. And then there's climate change ...

79-year-old Adam Petrovsky, centre, arriving at the Kingsley Hotel in Cork with his grandson Hlib and his wife Halyna under the Safe Harbour for Ukraine project. Picture: Michael MacSweeney/Provision

The fact that thousands of Ukrainian refugees who will shortly be arriving in Ireland will be accommodated initially in tents provides a savage underpinning to the realities of what is becoming a major and very visible crisis for the State.

Ireland needs to build at least 33,000 new homes annually to move towards the requirements created by satisfying domestic demands. 

At least the same number will be needed to offer a semblance of a normal life for Ukrainians who have been displaced by the barbarous activities of Vladimir Putin and what used to be known, with grudging respect, no longer applicable, as The Red Army.

We are running out of emergency accommodation. Whether or not we can meet these targets, in an industry that is short of skills and people, is a moot point.

It’s just the moment, therefore, to consider the consequences of a new report that predicts that some 64,000 homes — exactly the number we need for new build and to help displaced persons — are at risk in east Cork and Waterford from rising sea levels.

A national coastal change management strategy steering group was established in 2020, when it was acknowledged that 2m people in Ireland could be impacted by the changes in sea levels.

Areas under threat include Midleton, Youghal, Cobh, Shanagarry, Waterford, Westport, and Galway.

Housing is a political hot potato, but when it coincides with wartime pressures and climate change, it may be the time to acknowledge that it goes beyond the remit of the current brief and has to be recast as a role for someone with a higher level of clout. 

Someone who can pull together the differing requirements of social policy, planning, economics, and development — and turn them into a strategy. In short, a far bigger job with greater access to resources than currently exists.

CLIMATE & SUSTAINABILITY HUB