Ireland needs more cost rental housing and a “much longer-term view” is needed to solve the country’s housing problems, the head of the Housing Commission has said.
John O’Connor said the State should focus on ensuring that it takes ownership of social housing into the future.
The commission was established as part of the Programme for Government to examine housing issues, such as supply.
It has called for a “radical strategic reset of housing policy” and has estimated an underlying housing deficit in Ireland of up to 256,000 homes.
Mr O’Connor said more cost rental housing is needed and that up to 20% of all housing stock should be cost rental or social housing.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne, he said payments like HAP should only be used as a short to medium term measure.
“‘We need to ensure that we’re not continuing relying on more and more housing for the Housing Assistance Payment and keep increasing the amount of housing under that…The State needs to own the houses …. Let’s own the properties and control the properties”.
Mr O’Connor said some elements introduced by the Government to address the housing crisis have been very effective, including the affordable purchase and cost rental schemes.
He added that a “much longer-term view” is needed to solve Ireland’s housing problems.
He said a lot of work was being done on the Housing For All plan and the commission’s report was to build on that and to put things on a more stable footing into the future.
“We need to recognise the current issues that we face, one being that there is a housing deficit … we need to address that and we need to recognise that we need to provide that housing.
“We need to improve the supply system where we have a focus on delivering housing and we need to see housing as a key priority for our society and from an economic point of view.”
In its report, submitted to Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien earlier this month, the commission points to “ineffective decision making and reactive policy making where risk aversion dominates”.
