Housing for All reliance on firms criticised

It has already been met with stinging criticism, amid claims the Government has no way of knowing what the private sector will build.

Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien said the Government would use "every weapon in our armoury" to deliver Housing For All, insisting the targets are achievable: 

I know what the capacity is within our sector, our targets are challenging, but they've been based on very detailed research about what we can do all across the country. Am I confident that we can reach those housing numbers that we've set out? Yes, I am. Is it going to be easy to do? No, it's not. We've got to challenge ourselves with this and that's what we're doing.

The document lays out how housing construction will have to grow by nearly 75% to meet demand.

Further 27,000 construction workers needed 

An estimated 40,000 workers are involved in delivering 20,000 homes a year — but this number will need to increase by a further 27,500 workers to hit the target of 33,000 homes a year by 2025.

The need for additional construction workers led Taoiseach Micheál Martin to encourage Leaving Cert students to "consider careers across the whole spectrum of construction", adding that steps will be taken to attract people who are long-term unemployed into the industry.

The document says the industry needs to expand and that "this will happen through the attraction and retention of those with the necessary pre-existing skills and the provision of new training opportunities for those interested in a career in the construction sector".

It cites the forthcoming labour demand estimates for Ireland’s 'National Housing Targets, 2021-2030' report, that approximately 2,500 additional carpenters will need to be recruited or trained.

James Benson, director with the Irish Home Builders Association (IHBA), said there are concerns around labour availabilty in the sector, and that reaching the upper figures will require more training or changes to work permit rules. 

Writing in today's Irish Examiner, Rory Hearne, assistant professor in social policy at Maynooth University, said the Government's plan fails on many levels:  

The starting claim that the government will deliver 33000 homes a year is ambitious, but it is misleading because over half of these are due to come from the private market. The Government has no control over this delivery. Furthermore, not once does the plan mention the aim of reducing housing prices. That clearly isn’t their intention.

Dr Hearne said generation rent has been left at the mercy of the vulture investor landlords for access to a home.

"In regard to building the capacity of workers to deliver this, it is again completely dependent on the market. All of the initiatives to address the supply of skills are predicated on employers and the construction industry making the careers attractive," he writes. 

The opposition has also criticised the plan for being developer-focused and not delivering social housing in the numbers required.

Sinn Féin's housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin said the plan was the previous Rebuilding Ireland scheme "under a new name", while Labour's spokesperson, Senator Rebecca Moynihan, said the document offered too much to developers.

“Affordability will continue to be a real issue, and shared equity a boom to developers. Like with the help to buy scheme, many of these new supports for private developments will inflate prices and increase developer profits," she said.