The continued downward trend in house commencement notices has been described by Social Democrats TD Rory Hearne as another ominous sign that the government won’t come anywhere close to reaching its 40,000 new homes target for 2025.
Deputy Hearne, who is the party’s housing spokesperson, said:
“Every other day seems to bring further bad news on the housing front. Yesterday it was revealed that the Central Bank had revised downwards its house completion estimates, with just 32,500 homes forecast for this year.
“This is well short of the government’s own target of 40,000 for 2025. However, even the Central Bank’s more pessimistic estimate will be difficult to achieve given the latest monthly home start figures released by the Department of Housing.
“They show there were only 1,156 commencement notices for new homes lodged in August – the lowest figure for that month since 2016. The previous month’s commencements, at 1,059, were also worryingly low.
“This means that, so far this year, the total number of house commencements stands at just 8,540. This is truly shocking and shows that the housing crisis is spiralling out of control under this government.
“On the basis of these figures, how on earth can Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael stand over the programme for government commitment to deliver 300,000 homes by 2030?
“This government is two-faced in its housing policy, outwardly saying funding isn’t an issue and then restricting finance for social housing. Its own Minister for Housing has negatively impacted housing delivery by delaying and denying funding to housing associations and cancelling public-private partnership (PPP) social housing projects.
“I am once again urging the government to immediately act on the Social Democrats’ proposal for a Homes for Ireland Savings Account, which would leverage some of the €160 billion in Irish savings to build desperately needed affordable homes over the next five years.
“The government is clearly out of ideas when it comes to solving the housing emergency. It would be very much in the public interest if it listened to constructive proposals put forward by others.”
September 19, 2025