A combination of inaction and a nonsensical approach to housing provision has led to the Central Bank’s downgrading of an already horrible delivery estimate, according to Social Democrats housing spokesperson Rory Hearne.
Deputy Hearne said:
“This morning, the Minister for Housing said that, in the wake of recent government policies, ‘rents may go up… I certainly hope they don’t.’
“This interaction illustrates the government’s uninformed, spray and pray approach to tackling the housing crisis – the Minister either knows his policies will cause an increase in rent cost, which he hollowly apologises for, or he doesn’t understand how his policies will affect the market.
“It’s incompetence like this that has caused the Central Bank to downgrade its forecast for how many homes will be built this year and over the following two years – just when it looks like we can’t fall any further, the government finds a way to worsen housing outlook.
“Commencements have dropped sharply, while house completions have failed to meet expectations in the first quarter of this year – the proposals surrounding rent pressure zone reform will do nothing to improve these outcomes, only causing more pain for renters.
“The Central Bank’s revision shows how egregious the lies spouted by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael during the general election were about reaching 40,000 completions last year – they won’t even reach that figure this year or the next.
“Voters were told that the government had ‘turned a corner’ on housing – FFG sold the public a lie in exchange for their trust, resulting in an election performance fueled by falsehoods.
“On the floor of the Dáil, Social Democrats TDs are repeatedly told that we haven’t put forward solutions to the housing catastrophe by the Taoiseach and his Ministers – in reality, this is simply a deflection from their own failures.
“I’ve urged the government to establish a Homes for Ireland Savings Account, an innovative way of offering an incentivised savings scheme for Irish savers while opening up a new source of domestic private financing for home building in Ireland.
“The Taoiseach and Minister for Housing must put aside political point scoring to face this emergency head-on.”
19th June, 2025