Housing Minister cherrypicking data on completions
Housing Minister cherrypicking data on completions - The Labour Party
- Minister has no plan to get construction sector capacity 50,000
Labour housing spokesperson Conor Sheehan TD called out Government’s failure to deliver the homes needed at the scale needed.
Following the publication of the latest housing completion figures, Deputy Sheehan said:
“We are falling so far behind the scale of homes needed for people across the country. Delivery is no where near where it needs to be, and it’s abundantly clear that the Minister has no plan to increase the capacity of the construction sector to get delivery above 50,000.
“There seems to be no plan from the Minister to tackle growing construction inflation which continues to soar. The energy crisis due to the war in Iran is continuing to push up construction costs which will no doubt lead to a slow down in new housing starts. Yet the Minister is silent on this.
“The Minister needs to bring forward a suite of measures to help small SME builders access cheaper finance easier and to address the structural blockages to housing delivery which unfortunately despite the spin Simon Harris’ new bill will not do.
“Housing Building Finance Irelands commercial lending rates are around 11% and are simply too expensive for small builders who will not be able to service debt at this level. We need to get construction sector capacity above 50’000 units a year in order to have any hope of addressing the housing crisis and this Government have no plan and now way of doing this.
“There is also again a clear case for a State Construction Company because the capacity does not exist in the construction sector to eliminate or even to reduce the growing housing deficit. The tried and failed methods of this Government are getting us nowhere fast.”