Vivienne Clarke
The new housing minister, James Browne, has said that his focus will not be on projections but on the actual delivery of new homes.
“We need to build, build, build," he said.
The minister responded to queries about the disparity between projects and the number of new homes delivered in 2024.
Housing was the biggest social issue of our time, he told Newstalk Breakfast.
“It's been a state of crisis now for several years. We went through about ten years of under-delivery and we still haven't caught up. And we have a lot of work to do to catch up. And at the same time, our population has been increasing significantly.
“So there is very much a real challenge there and there's lots of reports out there. And I think while they might differ, the figures are all very clear. We have to ramp up our housing delivery and we have to change our approach and how we do that," Mr Browne said.
"What I want to do as the Minister for Housing is my entire focus is to how do we get to build more houses. It’s not about ideology, it’s not about keeping particular sectors happy, but we need to build, build, build and that's what we need to do in this country.”
The new Planning and Development Act will clear the pathway to homes being delivered across the country, he said. The planning process in the past had led to delays. Now, the process would be that there wasn’t a reason for people to object.
The Bill was “very comprehensive and its entire focus is how we streamline to deliver a true accounting process. Of course people should be able to have their opinion, but far too often I think that the delays in terms of our planning system are completely disproportionate.”
On the issue of the projections for 2024 that fell short of targets, Mr Browne said that the projections had been based on a number of external and independent reports and everyone had been disappointed with the delivery of homes in 2024.
“I think we do have to probably rely less on projections. And that's why I say I want to focus more on how to just get every lever of the state focused on delivering houses, build, build, build is what we need to do. Many are getting caught up in projections.”
Meanwhile, Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik criticised the Programme for Government for not including proposals to change the “patently failed policy” on housing.
Ms Bacik told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland that it was “extraordinary” that up until the end of 2024 government ministers had been saying that 40,000 homes would be built last year, but, according to the CSO, the figure was almost 10,000 short of that.
“If the government genuinely believed they were going to be building that number as late as December of last year, then it's not competent to see it fall so far short. And this matters to households who are struggling, to people who can't get a home, to people facing eviction, to families who are desperate to get an affordable and secure home.”
Ms Bacik said that “clearly” there needed to be a minimum of 50,000 to 60,000 new homes built and projections may get higher, but the question was how anyone could have faith in a government that had been “so clearly wrong” about the numbers of homes being built last year and which did not propose to change anything.
The Taoiseach did not have any new ideas and his government did not have any new ideas on how they were going to “ramp up” supply, she added.
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