Irish Examiner view: Housing on the right track, but still off target

Despite all the politicking, it might just be that Ireland is on the right track when it comes to building homes. But decades of underachievement have us on the back foot

It has emerged from the Department for Housing that just €1.4bn of the €4bn earmarked this year for social and affordable housing has been spent to the end of September. Picture: Andrew Matthews/PA

While, on one hand, the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) this week predicted that next year will see the biggest build-out of new homes in this country since the Celtic Tiger, we have also been told the Government spending on housing is well behind target.

The CIF rationale is based on the premise that costs have stabilised since the worst point of the economic “price shock”, which followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and also that additional resources given to An Bord Pleanála have hastened planning decisions.