Ryan’s threat to crack whip fails to hit home with local authorities
Minister now says that his plan to get tough with councils was, in fact, simply a listening exercise
ENVIRONMENT Minister Eamon Ryan’s threat to ‘crack the whip’ and force local authorities to ramp up the delivery of housing appears to have fallen on deaf ears, according to the latest figures. This time last year, the Green Party leader vowed to get tough with councils as he warned the State may have to engage in a massive ‘intervention’ to meet housing targets.
He said at the time: ‘I will be cracking the whip next year. I will be going to councils. Visiting them. Seeing how they are getting on.’
Questioned about his promised local authority housing crusade 12 months on, Mr Ryan said that, with the help of an assistant, he visited all but four of the country’s councils.
And he promised to visit the remaining local authorities – in Cavan, Donegal, Fingal and Meath – in January.
But when asked if his promise to ‘crack the whip’ produced positive results, Mr Ryan described a far gentler approach at a roundtable briefing last week.
He told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘What I tend to do is go for the day, meet the management, meet the councillors, spend two or three hours with each and go and visit other local community or business or other kind of groups. ‘It’s a listening exercise. We’re not there just to tell people what to do; we’re there to listen.’
However, the latest Department of Housing Local Government and Heritage figures, indicate the Minister’s approach has not made a significant difference to the number of homes delivered by councils.
To date, local authorities have approved just 1,089 of the 5,000 Vacant Refurbishment grants that the Government has targeted to free vacant properties nationwide.
Councils also built just 875 affordable homes in the first three quarters of the year, significantly below the 2,885 builds delivered in 2022.
The Department also confirmed just 150 Local Authority Affordable Purchase homes were delivered in this year’s first three quarters.
And so far, only 950 long-term vacant or derelict properties have been identified by councils across the country, under the €150m Urban Regeneration Development Fund. In response to queries from the MoS, a Department of Housing spokeswoman said it is ‘projected that 32,000 homes will be completed in 2023, the highest since 2007’ under the Government’s Housing for All plan.
She added ‘some 100,000 homes have been built since 2020, when this Government entered office’.
Social Democrats housing spokesman Cian O’Callaghan said: ‘According to the revised 2023 estimates published by the Government, €220m allocated to build local authority social housing this year will not be spent and is being reallocated to other areas. The complex and centralised control of social housing delivery, by central Government, ties the hands of local authorities and delays the delivery of much-needed social housing.
‘Instead of talking tough and providing sound bites about cracking whips, Minister Ryan would be much more effective if he dismantled these bureaucratic rules so that local authorities can build more homes.’
He told the MoS: ‘There is general agreement that at least 50,000 new homes are needed each and every year to meet the needs of our growing population. While the Government acknowledges that their housing targets are far too low, they have failed to revise them upwards.’
The Dublin Bay North TD also blasted Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien’s failure to meet social and affordable housing targets.
‘The Minister promised tens of thousands of affordable homes at the last election. To date, only 424 affordable purchase homes have been delivered,’ he said.
In order to speed up the delivery of local authority-driven schemes, Mr O’Callaghan called on the Government to remove ‘the cumbersome and bureaucratic fourstage approval process that ties the hands of local authorities and notfor-profit housing bodies’.
He added: ‘It significantly slows down and hinders the delivery of much needed homes.’
‘At least 50,000 homes are needed every year’