Government meeting housing crisis with disinterest – State must build at scale

Speaking during Leaders’ Questions today, Labour leader Ivana Bacik accused Government of failing to deal with the housing crisis.

Deputy Bacik said:

“Only the State has the deep pockets to underwrite the scale of investment needed in housing, but on all metrics this Government is failing.

“Rents are up, evictions are up, homelessness is up, the cost of purchasing a home is up. Rather than opening their minds to different policies, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are wed to the same tried and failed housing policies that are making things worse.

“Far too many people in Ireland today are suffering the trauma of losing their home through this Government’s prioritisation of the market over people. There are just two two-bed properties for rent on Daft.ie today.

“Threshold supported more than 10,000 households in the first three months of this year alone – that’s 3% of all households in the private rented sector in just twelve weeks. People simply can’t cope.

“All the while, there are some people who are profiting from this social disaster – scarcity is riving up profits for land hoarders, higher rents are benefitting price-gouging landlords, while at the same time, policies are failing the five and a half thousand homeless children, the 60% of renters unable to afford their rents, and failing the 60,000 people on the housing list.

“When this Government was formed, the Taoiseach promised “unpopular” decisions on housing. Yet the difficult decisions Government has made to date has only made life more difficult for the vulnerable in our housing market.

“We know what works, the eviction ban during the Covid crisis slowed homelessness. In the sixties, under a Fianna Fáil Government, the National Building Agency built homes at scale and lifted thousands of people out of squalor – yet the Taoiseach ridicules Labour’s plan to transform the Land Development Agency into a State Construction Company to deliver homes for people.

“In response to me in the Dáil the Taoiseach opted to deflect rather than engage in the substantive policy measures that the Labour Party has consistently put forward. As it stands, the State and Affordable Housing Bodies are purchasing finished homes from developers – not tendering to build homes.

“The Taoiseach needs to wake up to the reality facing people and deliver the increased supply that we need. We need to change approach. Government needs to realise that there is no acceptable level of homelessness, there is no acceptable level of evictions, we need radical action in housing now.”