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New homes ‘in the hundreds not 1,000s’ six authorities fail to erect council properties Minister is slammed over ‘lack of progress’
Eoghan Murphy and Leo Varadkar SHOCKING new figures have exposed Government boasts over the number of council houses being built in Ireland.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy have repeatedly referred to the construction of “thousands” of State properties every year.
But the Irish Mirror’s analysis of figures buried in the Department of Housing’s website reveals the shameful truth:
■ Only 1,014 council homes were built last year
■ Six councils built no new homes at all
■ A paltry 166 were put up in the first three months of this year, and
■ Just 320 were constructed in 2016. Around 10,000 people are homeless in Ireland, 4,000 of them children.
Sinn Fein TD Eoin O Broin slammed the lack of progress from Mr Murphy and criticised his “lack of ambition”. He demanded the “shackles” be taken off local authorities to let them build desperately-needed homes. Mr O Broin said: “The real concern here is the Department of Housing will not approve large-scale councilled developments.
“All of the council-led [projects] are small insular developments, 11 houses here, 30 houses there.
“The central problem is we need councils to be developing much larger scale projects but for that they need approval, they need funding.
“So far either the Department of Housing won’t approve them or the department is insisting they Eoin O Broin are private developer-led. While Eoghan Murphy will quote very highsounding figures, when you look at the detail councils still have the shackles on in terms of funding and approval for large-scale projects.
“There are no targets for affordable housing to be delivered by local authorities.
“There is no funding stream available today for local authorities for affordable housing.
“All the councils are being given for social is small insular developments of between 20 and 50-odd units.”
Mr O Broin said the new Land Development Agency unveiled last week is only “making things worse” as it focuses on private developers.
The Department of Housing’s figures relate to the first quarter of 2018 and they suggest the number of new council houses built this year will only be in the hundreds.
It makes a mockery of Government claims thousands of units have been constructed. The statistics show last year’s under the category “Local Authority Housing Output New Build” was only 1,014.
To make matters worse, there were six local authorities that built no new homes.
They include the densely-populated urban areas of South Dublin Council and Galway City Council.
Both of these districts have desperate housing problems with thousands of families on waiting lists.