Programme for Government Commitments Not Enough: Substantial house building programme needed in Budget 2021
Labour Housing Spokesperson Rebecca Moynihan has called for a substantial programme of house building as part of Budget 2021.
Moynihan was speaking after the publication of a report by property economist Ronan Lyons and industry body Irish Institutional Property (IIP) showing that as many as 47,000 houses will have to be built each year for the next five years just to meet demand.
Senator Moynihan said:
“This report underscores the need for a substantial sustained programme for house building as part of Budget 2021. Last year only 21,000 housing units were delivered under Rebuilding Ireland and the targets contained within the Programme for Government are not ambitious enough, 50,000 within the next five years will not make a dent in our housing crisis.
The Minister should have supplied and funded a direct build programme as part of the July stimulus, and he needs to act now including a substantial programme as part of the Budget and release significant funding for development on public land. Labour would build 80,000 social and affordable homes and establish a single national State agency, called the National Housing Development Bank to deliver housing.
“I am calling again on Minister O’Brien to suspend the co-living directives which he has the power to do. He knows co-living is not a solution to the housing crisis and he cannot continue to dither on this while the number of co-living applications grow every week. Unless the Minister suspends the guidelines now, co-living developments will completely replace the sustainable long-term housing we need to build.
Moynihan continued:
“This report highlights how we are falling behind in terms of house building in Ireland. The Minister needs to announce an ambitious programme of house building as part of the Budget.