Homeless groups criticise initiative

The Government's affordable housing initiative was broadly welcomed yesterday, although homeless groups said it would do nothing for the 48,000 families on housing waiting lists.

Focus Ireland and the Simon Community of Ireland said the homeless had been "snubbed" and people on local authority waiting lists would continue to wait for suitable accommodation.

Ms Noeleen Hartigan, Simon's social and policy research co-ordinator, said: "Of the 48,000 households on waiting lists, 80 per cent have incomes of less than €15,000 a year, and will not be able to afford these new 'affordable' houses."

Focus Ireland's chief executive, Mr Declan Jones, said the homeless problem was getting worse and cuts in State funding for the organisation would hit the most marginalised in society.

He said the Government's focus should be on more direct provision of housing for people on very low incomes rather than just affordable houses.

The Irish Home Builders' Association, however, welcomed the initiative and said it should increase the volume of affordable housing in the years ahead.

In a statement, it said the houses could only be delivered if the "bureaucratic" planning system was streamlined.

"It is an absolute necessity that the planning process is re-examined with a view to reducing complexity and bureaucracy," the association said.

Opposition parties were mostly critical of the plans, with Fine Gael's environment spokesman, Mr Bernard Allen, saying that low-cost housing plans would have to be extended nationwide to have any impact on ending the "misery" in the housing sector.

"We have a crisis in the public housing programme with thousands of families waiting for accommodation, equivalent to at least 100,000 people. Some of them have been waiting for eight or nine years," he said.

"This scheme applies only to Dublin, Meath and Kildare, yet the housing crisis extends far beyond Leinster. The Government must disclose its plans for the rest of the country where there is an equally serious problem."

The Labour Party's environment spokesman, Mr Eamon Gilmore, demanded that State land be released to local authorities rather than to property developers.

"The Government must clarify precisely how this land is to be released. Is it going to go to local authorities or voluntary or co-operative housing agencies? Or is it - in line with the Minister for housing's previous declarations - intended for property developers?" he asked.

Sinn Féin's housing spokesman, Mr Arthur Morgan, said the scheme would prove worthless unless the land was given to either local authorities or voluntary housing schemes.

"The Taoiseach's assertion that there would be no local authority housing as part of these developments suggests that a game of smoke and mirrors is being played. If it is the case that these lands are just being handed over to private developers at knock-down prices to reduce building overheads, then the scheme will be worthless," said Mr Morgan.

The Green Party was more positive and its housing spokesman, Mr Eamon Ryan, said the Government needed to ensure State land was better used.

The Green Party also called on the Taoiseach to instruct the Minister for Defence to review the role of Cathal Brugha Barracks in Rathmines where, it says, it should be possible to provide affordable housing close to the city centre.