No new social homes for Cork City and county in first three months of year
The Féin Sector' 'plete Overreliance Picture: Government's Thomas Private On Hit The Gould Gareth Chaney/collins Out Td Rental At Sinn
No new social homes were delivered across Cork City and county in the first three months of the year, new figures show.
The latest figures from the Department of Housing show that neither Cork City Council nor Cork County Council completed any social housing projects in the first quarter of the year. This includes the fact there were no social houses built by affordable housing bodies or acquired through Part V planning rules in the same period.
The Government’s latest Housing for All update detailed that a total of 158 new social homes were built across the entire country in the first three months of the year.
In total, through new builds as well as acquisition and leasing, 720 social homes were delivered.
The figures prompted Sinn Féin TD for Cork North Central, Thomas Gould, to criticise the slow pace of delivery of social housing.
“Three-month periods where no homes are built to reduce this even further is a shocking indictment of the Government’s complete failure on housing,” said Mr Gould.
He said that too many people are being forced to access private rental accommodation through the Housing Assistance Payment (Hap) and Rental Accommodation Scheme (Ras) schemes.
A total of 170 Hap tenancies were added between Cork city and county, while a further 34 tenants sought access to Ras.
“At the same time, not a single social home was built by either Cork city or county council. That is a shocking indictment of Government policy and its complete overreliance on the private rental sector.”
Last week, Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien pushed back on criticism that there was an underdelivery of social homes in the first few months of the year. He said that significant delivery occurs in the last three months of each year, with 67% of social housing output taking place in the final three months of 2023, and 5,472 houses being completed.
He said that the Government would reach its overall target for social housing delivery, set at 12,930 for the full year, across new builds, leasing, and acquisition.
“There may be some hoping that we fail, but this Government actually won’t fail and we haven’t heretofore because we know how big an issue and challenge this is for people,” said Mr O’Brien.
However, last year, the Government failed to meet its social housing targets, with 8,110 new-build social homes delivered while the target was set at 9,100 units.