Construction activity declines while homelessness rises – legacy of first year of FF and FG

Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik TD called out the failure of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to tackle the housing disaster during Leaders’ Questions today.

Deputy Bacik said:

“The trends are going in all the wrong direction – building targets will be missed, construction activity declining, rents rising and 60% of people cannot afford to buy an apartment on their own salary.

“Completions for this year are expected to fall another 25%, and in the Greater Dublin Area alone, figures show that almost 41,000 permissions for apartments lie dormant.

“That is the scorecard for Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in the first year of this Government.

“In a move that is beyond satire, the State is even funding Spunout to advise young people by video on how to cope with a move back to their parents’ house – when it is this Government that has priced them out of the rental market.

“If the Budget primed the locked-out generation for disappointment, this Government’s housing plan has pushed young people over the edge. There is no action on the reality of land speculation which is delaying delivery, nor is there anything to support small developers who want to help deal with the crisis.

“Labour has long identified the need to transform the Land Development Agency into a State Construction Company, capable of delivering homes at scale, yet this Government is charging ahead with the same tried and failed policies, instead of taking the radical action necessary to address the housing disaster.

“Fianna Fáil just can’t help themselves.

“Budget 2026 saw them chase the private developer model with a tax cut, even when presented with all the evidence that it does not work. Indeed this VAT cut is being absorbed by developers, at a time when over 5,000 children are living in homelessness.

“This Government’s policy is incoherent and contradictory. Rather than engaging with constructive proposals put forward by Labour, Minister Chambers and his Government colleagues remain deeply defensive. Defending Fianna Fáil’s record is not going to deliver any homes.

“The facts are clear, social and affordable housing targets are being missed year in year out, Ireland has sky high rents, thousands of people are locked out of ever buying a home of their own and the appalling vista has emerged of over 5,000 children spending Christmas in emergency accommodation. It doesn’t have to be this way.”