The Minister for Housing’s Christmas gift to all of those in housing precarity is to once again mislead the public on housing delivery figures, according to Social Democrats housing spokesperson Rory Hearne.
Deputy Hearne said:
“During the first nine months of 2025, 3,134 new-build social homes were provided by the State – this figure is nowhere near the 10,000 direct-build social homes that were promised by the end of the year.
“Quarter 3’s affordable housing delivery breaks down as 794 units as part of the First Home Scheme, 760 as a result of the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant, 205 were affordable purchase homes delievered by Local Authorities, and 302 under the Cost Rental Scheme.
“Not one cost rental home was delivered by Local Authorities – the Land Development Agency and Affordable Housing bodies are shouldering all of the weight of cost rental provision.
“The government is making misleading claims on social and affordable housing delivery – when you drill down through these figures, you see that a substantial proportion of what’s considered affordable housing delivery is not actually the building of affordable homes, but various forms of market subsidies.
“Declaring the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant as affordable housing when there are no affordability requirements attached is particularly egregious – we know that at least a quarter of those grants are taken up by private landlords for rental properties.
“Only 1 in 10 of these homes are actually delivered by local authorities for affordable purchase, and only 1 in 4 is a cost rental or affordable home delivered by the State, with the remaining 75% being market subsidies.
“The government is cooking the books when it comes to housing provision; what we need is the direct building of social and affordable homes by the state through a state construction company, Local Authorities and AHBs using modular methods of construction.”
December 22nd, 2025