Government failing on housing, says Hearne

Up to 5,000 social and affordable homes are in limbo as a result of a dispute between the Department of Housing, the Department of Finance and the Department of Public Expenditure.

A report in the Irish Times reports of a row between the various government departments over how exactly the homes are to be founded.

The report goes on to state that work on the houses have effectively come to a halt.

Social Democrats TD and housing spokesperson Rory Hearne said “the Taoiseach has repeatedly said the government is doing all it can on housing, but this row over funding shows this is not true.”

“It is utterly scandalous that affordable and social housing projects are ready to go but are being held up by government dithering and a reluctance to commit funding.”

The Dublin North-West TD said the row is “disgraceful, especially when there is a budget surplus of billions available.”

“It shows the government’s utter incompetence when it comes to solving the housing crisis and its failure to treat it as the emergency that it is.”

Hearne poked fun at the government’s new dogma of wanting to boost the private sector involvement in housing, and remarked “it is not doing the one thing it can do to guarantee an increase in the supply of homes – state delivery through AHBs and local authorities.”

“This is yet another example of the government standing in the way of clear solutions to the housing emergency.

“It has also emerged that nearly 4,000 council homes were left vacant last year, despite the fact there are 60,000 people on local authority waiting lists across the country.”

Hearne noted that he received a response to a parliamentary question by Minister for Housing James Browne who confirmed that there were 340 new derelict sites registered by the government in 2024.

“This shows that the government has failed to get to grips with vacancy and dereliction – something that could quickly increase the supply of homes if properly enforced.

“The Minister must now explain why the government not only ignores, but actually impedes, the most immediate and obvious solutions to our worsening housing disaster.”