Government housing plan “simply not working” says Crowe

Sinn Féin TD for Dublin South West Seán Crowe has said that the government needs to at least double the number of affordable homes to buy and rent per year as rents in the Tallaght area.

He said the housing situation is “simply unaffordable”, noting that families in the area are shelling out out an average of €27,000 a year on rent for a three-bed house.

Speaking in the Dáil on Tuesday, Crowe said “there was talk of a slowdown in rent rises after the latest Daft report, but new rents in south Dublin still rose by 4.2%. Unfortunately, wages did not go up, which is the big crisis facing many families. An average three-bedroom rented house in Tallaght now goes for over €2,200 per month, which is €27,000 per year.”

“What family or individual can afford this on top of ever-increasing costs like those of childcare and energy? What young teacher, nurse, soldier, garda, bricklayer or factory worker can afford to live close to Dublin when rents are so high?

He said that the government’s housing plans are “simply not working.”

“The Minister might not know that but everyone else does. None of the Government’s housing plans has worked and it is safe to say none of its future plans will work unless there is a radical reset of Government housing policy. We need to at least double the number of affordable homes to buy and rent per year.”

He said that Sinn Féin has a plan to fix housing, saying his party have “workable, ambitious solutions that would alleviate the pressure on the housing market and allow supply to start meeting demand finally.”

“Put simply, the longer Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are in power, the worse the housing crisis will get. We are asking that people give us a chance to fix the housing market that others clearly cannot fix. That is the big challenge. If people are genuinely concerned about fixing it, there are alternatives.”