Government “cooking the books” on number of homes being built, says Hearne

Social Democrats TD Rory Hearne has accused the government of “cooking the books” on how many homes were built in Ireland in 2025.

During the first nine months of 2025, 3,134 new-build social homes were provided by the state, far below the government’s own target of 10,000.

The government has said they are making progress on housing delivery, but Hearne said the government were trying to make itself look good.

In Q3 of 2025, 794 units were built as part of the First Home Scheme, 760 as a result of the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant, 205 were affordable purchase homes delivered by Local Authorities, and 302 under the Cost Rental Scheme.

Hearne noted that not one cost-rental home was delivered by local authorities, which he says flies in the face of government claims about tackling the housing crisis.

“Not one cost rental home was delivered by Local Authorities – the Land Development Agency and Affordable Housing bodies are shouldering all of the weight of cost rental provision.”

The Dublin North-West TD alleged that the government are making “misleading” claims on social and affordable housing delivery.

“When you drill down through these figures, you see that a substantial proportion of what’s considered affordable housing delivery is not actually the building of affordable homes, but various forms of market subsidies.”

“Declaring the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant as affordable housing when there are no affordability requirements attached is particularly egregious – we know that at least a quarter of those grants are taken up by private landlords for rental properties,” he said.

Hearne noted that only 1 in 10 of these homes are delivered by local authorities for affordable purchase, and only 1 in 4 are cost-rentals or affordable homes delivered by the state, with the remaining 75% being market subsidies.

“The government is cooking the books when it comes to housing provision; what we need is the direct building of social and affordable homes by the state through a state construction company, local authorities and AHBs using modular methods of construction,” he said.