Dún Laoghaire housing list growing by 100 a month, TD claims

The housing list in Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, was growing by 100 cases per month, local People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett told the Dáil.

He said 300 new houses were to be provided over three years, when the waiting list had increased by 1,200 cases in the past year.

“The crisis will get worse,’’ Mr Boyd Barrett said.

Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly said he had secured the largest budget for social housing in the history of the State, and there had been substantial engagement on the issue with the local council in Dún Laoghaire.

Mr Kelly said Mr Boyd Barrett had omitted to say that there was a housing mix in each local authority area of building new houses, purchasing and leasing houses, or the use of boarded-up social houses.

“This is real money that is fixed and ring-fenced for this purpose,’’ Mr Kelly said.

“It will have a dramatic impact.’’

Mr Kelly said the Government had inherited a situation where houses had not been built for decades.

“Ultimately, it takes time to turn that around.’’

Dublin allocation

Earlier, Mr Kelly said more than €500 million would be allocated to Dublin between now and the end of 2017 for housing. He said that the social housing policy in the capital was separate to everything else his department did because of Dublin’s particular issues.

Mr Kelly said his department had put together a huge package to help homeless people.

The Minister said: “Unfortunately, it would be impossible to have a utopian package that addresses everything immediately.’’