The Taoiseach-in-waiting has political spin in spades without any discernible plan to tackle the housing crisis, according to Social Democrats TD Cian O\u2019Callaghan.<\/p>\n
Deputy O\u2019Callaghan, who is the party\u2019s spokesperson on housing, said:<\/p>\n
\u201cFine Gael\u2019s new leader has stated that he wants to build 250,000 homes over the next five years, equating to 50,000 homes each year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn doing so, Simon Harris is finally admitting to what has been obvious for some time \u2013 that this Government\u2019s targets have been totally inadequate and their delivery record abysmal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat the incoming Taoiseach has failed to outline is how he actually intends to build thousands more homes than are currently in the pipeline.<\/p>\n
\u201cSimon Harris\u2019s spin-heavy speech at the Fine Gael Ard Fheis was big on rhetoric but light on detail.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne concrete step that the Government could take to address the housing crisis is to introduce a specific zoning for affordable housing. This would facilitate a continuous supply of new homes that people can genuinely afford.<\/p>\n
\u201cI put forward an amendment to the Planning and Development Bill to introduce a zoning for affordable housing, which the Government shamefully rejected.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople cannot live in housing targets. Without a major overhaul of the Government\u2019s housing policy, we will continue to see this crisis deepen.<\/p>\n
\u201cFine Gael\u2019s 13 years in office has seen record house prices, record rents and record numbers of people becoming homeless.<\/p>\n
\u201cSimon Harris\u2019s declaration that \u2018You Ain\u2019t Seen Nothing Yet\u2019 is sounding more like a threat than an inspirational\u00a0soundbite.\u201d<\/p>\n
ENDS
\nApril 8, 2024<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Taoiseach-in-waiting has political spin in spades without any discernible plan to tackle the housing crisis, according to Social Democrats TD Cian O\u2019Callaghan. Deputy O\u2019Callaghan, who is the party\u2019s spokesperson on housing, said: \u201cFine Gael\u2019s new leader has stated that he wants to build 250,000 homes over the next five years, equating to 50,000 homes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1499,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[278,10,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cian-ocallaghan","category-housing-crisis","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n