Doolan hits out at “cheap, nasty” comments from Minister Browne

Sinn Féin councillor Daithí Doolan has criticised “cheap, nasty” comments from Minister for Housing James Browne.

On Tuesday, the Minister announced an end to turnkey acquisitions for social housing, a move that the Minister hopes will deliver “many more homes available in social and private sectors.”

Minister Browne said, “I am determined to ensure that social housing is delivered through programmes where the state can influence the design, specification and mix of homes from the outset, ensuring that developments are aligned with identified social housing needs and local authority housing delivery objectives. This measure gives us the greater control needed to do just that.”

In seperate comments, Minister Browne said that some local authorities were not “stepping up to the mark,” furthering Minister Browne’s apathetic attitude towards local councils.

Since becoming Minister for Housing in January 2025, Minister Browne has waged a one-man war on local councils, accusing them of failing to deliver housing targets, but opponents of Browne, such as Doolan, said that the Minister is not giving councils the funding they need to tackle the housing crisis.

Minister Browne’s cavalier attitude towards local councils has irked many of his Fianna Fáil colleagues on Dublin City Council.

Cold war between DCC and Minister Browne heats up

Doolan said that the project is “doomed to fail” without councils being given the backing to deliver social housing, and said that “radical reform” is needed in the public procurement process.

“Dublin City Council have become reliant on private developers in the absence of a fully funded building programme that meets the needs of the city. Phasing out the purchasing of turnkey properties will not work if the Minister does not engage with local authorities and agree to a fully funded housing plan,” Doolan warned.

“Accusing local authorities of not ‘stepping up to the mark’ is a cheap, nasty comment from a minister that has overseen the biggest housing crisis in the history of the state,” the Ballyfermot-Drimnagh councillor said.

“I would ask the Minister for Housing, in the absence of turnkey properties, to outline in detail how he intends to fund Dublin City Council’s housing strategy,” the Sinn Féin leader on Dublin City Counil said.

Doolan commented that “this government has a history of making bad decisions that have seriously impeded our ability to deliver affordable housing. Imposing the private public partnerships and ending the Tenant In Situ Scheme have both had hugely negative consequences for delivering homes and preventing homelessness.”

“The Minister for Housing must stop blaming local authorities and start working with us to deliver on the housing needs for our cities and towns,” he said.