Minister criticised for saying Government ‘winning the battle’ on housing

The Government is “winning” the battle on housing, a Cabinet minister has claimed.

The Central Bank has projected that the Government will miss its own housing targets by a wide margin for the next three years, having also underdelivered in 2024.

Enterprise Minister Peter Burke said he would “contest strongly” that the Government’s housing plan was failing.

He said the Government had met its targets “at scale” in 2023 and 2022.

On RTE’s The Week in Politics, Mr Burke said: “I’m trying to explain exactly what we’re doing and how we are winning this battle.”

He added: “We’re starting to turn the tide. It’s going to take time. Absolutely, it will take time, I have no doubt in that.”

The comments were immediately criticised by Sinn Fein TD Mairead Farrell, who described the minister as “out of touch”.

On the same programme, she said: “I’m just absolutely shocked at what the minister just said that they’re winning the battle in terms of housing. They are losing the battle.

“And the biggest losers in this are the people who are indirectly impacted by the housing crisis that has festered and gotten worse under Fianna Fail and Fine Gael.”

Meanwhile, Housing Minister James Browne accepted there is a “challenging situation” around housing delivery, but maintained it was “very early” to be discussing projections on final figures for the year.

He refused to say whether the Central Bank projections would turn out to be accurate, and said: “Only time will tell whether the reports are right or wrong.”

Asked how Government could deliver on its housing target of 41,000 homes this year when Irish water agency Uisce Eireann says it only has capacity to connect 35,000, the minister said the body would be provided with additional funding and that a National Development Plan would be set out in the summer.

He added: “I’m confident that everything that can be done to maximise the delivery houses will be done.”

Mr Browne identified a “collapse” in apartment building in Dublin as a key driver of challenges around overall delivery.

He said: “Where a lot of those predictions that we won’t meet our targets, I think are based around the issue with delivering those apartments in Dublin.

“Housing outside of Dublin, generally speaking, is moving along, relatively speaking, on target.

“We have to do something quite radical to get those apartments going again.”

Speaking to RTE’s This Week, Mr Browne said this included commencing the Planning and Development Act as quickly as possible.

He said this would change who could object to the building of apartments and “streamline” judicial reviews.

Outside of regulations, the Fianna Fail minister also said there was a need to take action on domestic and international financing.

Asked if tax breaks for developers remained on the table, Mr Browne said: “I think they have to be examined. Everything has to be on the table.”

Senior Fine Gael figures including Tanaiste Simon Harris and Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe had argued previous tax break schemes for developers were expensive and damaged the economy.

Mr Browne said “nobody is proposing that the tax breaks of the past would make a comeback”, instead pointing towards the broader “regulatory regime” around taxation.