Failure to meet Rebuilding Ireland targets mean further delays to public housing & cost rental
Labour Party Senator, Rebecca Moynihan, has called for progress to be made on the delivery of public homes and cost-rental accommodation.
Senator Moynihan said:
“The targets set out by Rebuilding Ireland have been missed yet again.
“There needs to be more intervention in terms of direct build that contributes to long-term social housing.
“There are currently 17,745 on the Dublin City Council housing waiting list but in the last year the State has only built 433 homes and acquired 157 more.
“We need to simplify the processes for local authorities to enable them to build on public land and that allow them to access funding.
“The lack of affordable housing to rent and buy is still a national crisis issue that we must address concurrently to the global health crisis.
“With supply such a critical issue, we simply have to start building more homes- but homes that people can afford to both rent and buy, for the thousands of people on ordinary incomes that are getting squeezed out of the current market.
“Getting access to affordable, secure housing and quality rental accommodation is impossible for too many people in my area and right across Dublin. We know that the demand is there for affordable housing, but the State needs to build housing along with appropriate community facilities, not fund the bricks and mortar”
“We cannot continue to rely so heavily on the private sector to supply homes, as this is clearly not working.
“If the Covid-19 crisis has shone a light on anything in relation to the housing crisis, it is that we cannot allow people to languish in hotels and in hubs. The only solution out of this is by directly building social and affordable homes.
“The Government can’t even deliver on the low targets they have set for themselves for Rebuilding Ireland. These targets are constantly being missed and the only people who have to suffer the consequences are those who are on our housing waiting lists across the country.”