No guarantee social and affordable home build targets will be met – Taoiseach

The Taoiseach has said it is uncertain whether the Government will meet targets for building social and affordable homes this year.

However, Leo Varadkar said the overall house building target of 29,000 homes for 2023, outlined in the Housing For All strategy, would be exceeded.

His comments came as Tanaiste Micheal Martin and Sinn Fein’s Pearse Doherty clashed on the issue in the Dail.

Mr Doherty insisted it was patently evident that social and affordable home targets would be missed, as he branded the Government’s handling of the housing crisis a “complete shambles”.

Speaking to reporters in Brussels, Mr Varadkar was asked about the Government’s housing targets.

“On our housing targets I can absolutely guarantee that we will meet the overall housing targets, in fact we’ll exceed it, so we’ll build more than 30,000 new homes this year, and that’s the highest in well over a decade,” he said.

“What I can’t say for certain is whether we’ll meet every sub-target within that – social, affordable, private, cost rental etc. I can’t guarantee that.

“What I can say is that we’ll build more than 30,000 new houses this year, more than in well over a decade, and that we do expect new social housing output to exceed last year, so that’ll be certainly the highest since 1975.”

Back in Dublin, during Leaders’ Questions in the Dail, Mr Doherty said targets for building social and affordable homes had been missed in three successive years and were on course to fall short again this year.

He said by the end of September, less than a third of the 9,100 social homes target had been delivered.

He said the target for building affordable homes through councils, approved housing bodies and the Land Development Agency (LDA) was 3,500 for the year, but only 262 had been built by the end of quarter three.

“On anybody’s watch this is a complete shambles,” he told Mr Martin.

“Not only are these targets too low, the minister (housing minister Darragh O’Brien) is simply incapable of delivering on them.

“On every metric, Tanaiste, the housing crisis is deepening under your watch, under your Government.

“Rents are rising, house prices are rising, homelessness is rising, and the longer that Fianna Fail and Fine Gael remain in power the worse our housing crisis is getting.”

In response, Mr Martin pointed out that thousands of social homes were completed in quarter four last year.

“So quoting quarter three figures is not an accurate depiction of the reality and what will transpire at the end of the year,” he said.

The Tanaiste insisted there was a “very strong pipeline” of home building projects, with 11,600 social homes set to be built next year.

During robust exchanges in the chamber, Ceann Comhairle Sean O Fearghail chided Sinn Fein representatives for interrupting Mr Martin. Mr O Fearghail accused the party’s housing spokesman, Eoin O Broin, of “strategic heckling”.

Mr Martin dismissed Sinn Fein criticisms and insisted there was “significant” momentum around new house building projects under the Government, with around 32,500 new homes set to be built in 2023, well exceeding the Housing For All target of 29,000.