After all the Talk, all the Glossy Launches, Social Housing Targets are Being Missed Again
On foot of Oral Question responses from the Minister for Housing, Aontú Leader & Meath West TD Peadar Tóibín has raised serious concerns over the impact of Covid-19 restrictions upon social housing delivery, as targets are badly missed in 2020 and so far in 2021.
An Teachta Tóibín: “The impact of Covid-19 restrictions, that both the government and the Opposition is failing to mention is the impact upon housing output. At the start of 2021, 10,000 homes were not built because of government in lockdown. Throughout the pandemic restrictions and government lockdowns have decimated the supply of housing amidst a housing crunch. Now figures from the Minister show in the first year of the pandemic, our social housing target was missed by a couple of thousand. The Minister’s social housing target was 11,000 but we delivered less than 8,000. Nearly 3,000 of which were through leasing arrangements or acquisition. This means the government built only 5,000 social houses in an entire calendar year.”
“The picture for 2021 is even more bleak, with the full extent of the damage yet unknown. As of Q3 of 2021, we were more than 7,600 houses behind our annual target for 2021 of 12,750 – 2,000 of which are from leasing arrangements or acquisition. This all but guarantees that this government will once again miss their social housing targets for only their second year in government. Two years into his tenure as Minister, Darragh O’Brien has missed his social housing targets considerably whilst this government refuses to admit the impact Covid-19 restrictions have had on housing output.”
