The government has splashed the cash to the tune of half a billion euro in order to provide tax cuts for multi-millionaire investor funds and developers, according to Social Democrats housing spokesperson Rory Hearne.<\/p>\n
Deputy Heane said:<\/p>\n
\u201cThose in need of affordable homes – renters, generations stuck in their childhood bedrooms, and working families – will see little change from a budget completely lacking in vision.<\/p>\n
\u201cMinister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers said housing is a top priority in this year\u2019s budget – now that it\u2019s here, I\u2019m struggling to see any evidence of that.<\/p>\n
\u201cBudget 2026 is peppered with u-turns on election promises – 2025\u2019s budget was defined by its brazen electioneering, while this year\u2019s reverts to form, delivering tax breaks for those they\u2019re in bed with.<\/p>\n
\u201cFine Gael and Fianna F\u00e1il are still taking a \u2018wait and see\u2019 approach to the housing crisis – for years, they\u2019ve said their policies would lead to an increase in supply and lower prices, yet all we see is a dearth of delivery and rising costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government is removing rent controls and allowing rents to spiral out of control while there are record numbers of children in homeless accommodation – yet it\u2019s made sure that tax breaks are given to developers to line their pockets.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe absolute gall of the Minister to call this housing plan \u2018radical\u2019 – what exactly is radical about tiny apartments, sky rocketing rents, record homelessness and deciding that the solution must be tax breaks for developers?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe construction industry federation spent this summer lobbying for this abomination of a budget, and they’ve been rewarded by a subservient government.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rate of VAT applied in Ireland on apartment construction was already one of the lowest of 27 EU member states, well below the EU median of 20% – the clear message from this budget is that this government will never have the courage to end their cosy partnership with developers and investment funds and directly provide the housing that hundreds of thousands so desperately need.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no reason to believe that the change in VAT will lead to an increase in affordable housing provision – profits are bound to be pocketed as profits by developers and funds, just as we see with government subsidies.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 2024 social housing targets were 10,000 – this year\u2019s see the pitiful addition of 200 more, showing the government\u2019s lack of ambition and commitment to addressing a catastrophe that\u2019s growing exponentially.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no mention or focus on homelessness services, prevention or enabling over 16,350 \u00a0people to exit out of homelessness in this budget – there is now no doubt that the housing crisis is not a government priority.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Social Democrats published proposals in our alternative budget for a \u20ac120 million modular homes factory to produce up to 2,000 homes every year, as well as setting aside an initial \u20ac20 million to start up a State-owned construction company.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuch initiatives could have been funded by phasing out subsidies for private developers and investor fund landlords.\u201d<\/p>\n
October 7th, 2025<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The government has splashed the cash to the tune of half a billion euro in order to provide tax cuts for multi-millionaire investor funds and developers, according to Social Democrats housing spokesperson Rory Hearne. Deputy Heane said: \u201cThose in need of affordable homes – renters, generations stuck in their childhood bedrooms, and working families – […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12981,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[735,663,10,7,510],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-budget-2026","category-homelessness","category-housing-crisis","category-press-release","category-rory-hearne"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n