Taoiseach Micheál Martin has rejected claims that housing commencement numbers are moving in the wrong direction, despite new data showing that the number of commencements in the first half of the year is only a fraction of what it was during the same timeframe last year and the year before, reports RTE.
Speaking in Cork this afternoon, Mr Martin explained that a decline in housing commencements was expected in the first six months of the year, largely due to the conclusion of a levy waiver for developers at the end of last year.
Department of Housing figures reveal that 1,356 commencement notices were issued in June, bringing the total for the year so far to 6,325, reports RTE.
That number stands in stark contrast to the 34,581 commencement notices issued in the first half of last year, when the development levy waiver was still active.
The total of 6,325 represents less than half of the figures recorded from January to June in both 2023 and 2022, reports RTE.
When asked if the decline was cause for concern, Mr Martin responded: “I don’t think that’s fair, because you must look at the context where last year was a record year of 33,000, because of the waiving of development levies, and that is the context in which one must look at this.
“We expected a fall-off this year, given the record numbers that came in last year. The year before was 15,000, last year 33,000,” reports RTE.
He also noted that the number of housing completions increased during the first quarter of the year.
Mr Martin pointed to a number of major government initiatives that he described as “foundational steps” that will support future increases in home construction, reports RTE.
“There are thousands and thousands of houses now in the pipeline,” Mr Martin said, reports RTE.
“We do need to unblock some of those and that’s why the National Development Plan is particularly important in enabling the unblocking of some projects that are already about to happen or in the pipeline itself, so we are focused really in terms of the initiatives we have taken to attract further private sector investment into the construction industry, which is critical, but also in maintaining public sector investment,” reports RTE.
He reaffirmed that the Government had anticipated the drop in commencements during the first half of the year, especially after what he called the “extraordinary” volume of activity in the previous two years.
“Between 2023 and 2024, you are looking at close to 50,000 commencements so if we get those now completed, in addition to those already in the pipeline, I think you will have a significant number of houses completed and what will be key next year and the years ahead is to get more private sector construction, particularly in apartments,” reports RTE.
“We need to really increase the level of apartment building. There are plenty planning permissions out there. The planning framewoirk will enable councils to zone much more land, which is also going to be critical for house building into the future,” reports RTE.
Pressed again on concerns about the sharp drop in commencement notices for the first half of 2024, Mr Martin reiterated that his priority is boosting the annual number of completed homes from 33,000 to 50,000.
“We have a lot of commencements, we have a lot of planning permissions granted. The issue is how we turn those into buildings,” he said, reports RTE.
Meanwhile, Social Democrats TD Rory Hearne criticised the figures, saying the rate of housing commencements had “collapsed” just half a year after the general election.
Posting on X, he said commencements had surged by 62% in the days leading up to the election.
Mr Hearne accused the Government of having “misled the public” and of having “cooked the books on housing figures to win the election”, reports RTE.
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