Opposition TDs have hit out at the Government over its housing policy, after the Housing Commission estimated an underlying housing deficit in Ireland of up to 256,000 homes.
In a report which has been submitted to the Minister for Housing, the commission points to “ineffective decision making and reactive policy making where risk aversion dominates”.
Speaking in the Dáil, Sinn Féin’s housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin said that it was “virtually impossible” for the housing minister to ignore the warnings of the Housing Commission in the way that he ignored the advice of the Opposition.
The report has “landed a devastating blow” on the minster’s response to the housing crisis, he said.
“The real sucker punch” for the minister is the report’s call for a “radical, strategic reset of housing policy”.
“If RTÉ hadn’t have had that leaked today – you wouldn’t be publishing this week,” Mr Ó Broin said, and accused the minister of hoping to bury the report until after the local elections.
He called on the minister to publish the report tomorrow so that it can be debated.
Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik said that “nearly three years into Housing For All”, the policy is failing “in so many metrics”.
Rents are up, house prices are up, evictions are up, as are the numbers of those seeking emergency shelter, she said.
A new model for housing delivery is clearly needed, Ms Bacik concluded, as is “more genuine urgency” on this issue from Government.
Meanwhile, Social Democrats’ Cian O’Callaghan said that the Government’s housing targets were “hopelessly inadequate”.
Mr O’Callaghan called on the Government to “update its housing targets and publish the Housing Commission’s report in full – they should not be allowed to sit on it until after the elections”.
During Leaders Questions, Taoiseach Simon Harris said that the Government would publish the full Housing Commission report this week.
He said that any fair analysis would show progress on housing delivery.
Mr Harris said that it was always the Government’s intention to publish revised housing targets, but that it needed time to consider its findings, adding that over 30,000 new homes have commenced construction so far this year.
The report’s executive overview, seen by RTÉ News, calls for “emergency action” to address the “housing deficit”.
