‘Plan is still a home run’ MINISTER BACKS HOUSING FOR ALL
HOUSING Minister Darragh O’Brien has claimed his housing plan is working despite soaring house prices, record rents and the fewest number of homes on the market in history.
And he has denied it is “out of date” because the situation has changed since its launch almost a year ago with the influx of Ukrainians fleeing the war requiring housing.
He said: “It does take time, but it’s happening, it’s happening this year.”
Mr O’Brien launched a staunch defence of Housing for All, his landmark housing programme that he is staking so much political capital in.
But the statistics flowing out this summer have revealed that the plan — launched in September 2021 — is failing to make any real difference yet.
A recent daft.ie report showed that the leading property website for renting and buying has less properties listed than it has ever had before, with just over 700 nationally.
And the properties that are listed for rent there are showing the highest rates that renters have ever seen.
Prices
At the same time, homeowners seeking to get on the property market and buy a home are seeing prices go up and up, with prices now matching the unsustainable Celtic Tiger prices of 11 years ago.
Mr O’Brien defended his plan on yesterday’s Today with Claire Byrne on RTE Radio One.
He said: “It is not out of date because fundamentally I was taking a housing system that in 2020 delivered 20,000 homes, about the same in 2021, this year we’ll deliver about 25,000 or more new homes. “If I look back at even ten years ago, less than 10 years ago, 2015, there was only €200m being invested by Government at that stage in housing. It’s €4bn a year now and it is starting to take hold.
“Of course we’ve price inflation, but we’re not going to stop delivering on Housing for All.”