The top whip for the government has stated that “all different actions” and policy choices would be examined and considered in a special Cabinet meeting on housing, reports Breaking News.
According to Mary Butler, in order to reach the government’s goal of constructing 60,000 houses year, investors will need to assist close the finance gap.
On Monday, a special cabinet committee meeting on housing is anticipated to bring together ministers, reports Breaking News.
It comes as the Central Statistics Office reported that just little more than 30,000 new residences were finished last year, much below the 40,000 that were anticipated, putting more pressure on the government to increase the number of new construction projects.
The purpose of the gathering is to evaluate various housing possibilities, including tax incentives for builders and developers, reports Breaking News.
Ms. Butler stated that it was “unfair” to suggest that the government had fallen short of its housing goals when appearing on RTÉ’s The Week in Politics program.
“There was 125,000 houses built over the last three years. That’s 125,000 families sitting in their home this morning. We have a minister for housing in post for three weeks. We have a Cabinet meeting tomorrow, a Cabinet meeting to look at all different actions. I’m not sure exactly what’s going to be discussed at the meeting, but what I do know is that no decision has been made yet. In the programme for government, it stated quite clearly that we would look at the Rent Pressure Zones, there is nothing new in that, they are going to be looked at. That was one of the recommendations of the (Housing) Commission as well,” she said, reports Breaking News.
She added: “I do think the one thing we do have to recognise is taxpayers will spend 6 billion this year on housing in Ireland. In order to ramp up to the 60,000 houses that we need, you need an investment of approximately 20 billion euros. That can’t all come from the state. That’s why we need investors as well,” reports Breaking News.
Sinead Gibney, a Social Democrat, charged that the government was “doubling down” on ineffective housing policy.
Ms Gibney said: “We’ll be hosting our own motion and discussion on housing on Wednesday, as the Social Democrats are putting forward our solutions, which we have done so throughout the last term of government, and those solutions have been rejected by a government that seems entirely focused on private sector led solutions. There is a place for those solutions within a broader housing policy, but their own Commission has told them that they need a radical reset of that policy, and they are not doing that,” reports Breaking News.
“They are doubling down a policy which has clearly been proven not to work. We need to see renters with greater protections, not a shredding of the very poor protections that are already there, and we need to close those loopholes, and we need to focus on affordable and social housing delivered by this state. That’s where we should be,” reports Breaking News.
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