The indication by the State body charged with delivering affordable housing on public lands that it will push ahead with plans to build 852 homes on the site of the former Central Mental Hospital site in Dundrum despite an expected legal challenge is welcome. Hopefully it signals that a sense of urgency has at last started to permeate the various government bodies with responsibility in the area of housing.
The need for a more robust approach was underscored by the latest data on dwelling completions. The figure of 36,284 reported by the CSO for 2025 represents an increase of 20 per cent on the previous year, and the highest number since records began in 2011, but it is a long way off the Government’s target of 50,000 to 60,000 homes a year.
A separate report by independent construction consultants Mitchell McDermott further bolsters the case for a change of gear. It found that, for a variety of reasons, less than half of the large housing projects granted planning permission since 2022 had started construction.
It is not hard to draw a line between these figures and the comments of John Coleman, the chief executive of the Land Development Agency. Asked about the possibility of a challenge to its flagship Dundrum project - which got planning approval last month after delays of over two years - he responded: “We can’t wait any longer… We’re moving on regardless.”
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Similarly, the decision late last year by MetroLink to buy out the owners of houses on Dartmouth Square at an estimated cost of €30 million to circumvent a judicial review that could hold the project up for two years was expedient and in tune with public sentiment.
This would appear to explain why both the LDA and Metrolink appear to have political support for their new-found appetite for action. It bodes well for the Government’s recently created Housing Activation Office, which will draw together State agencies to clear roadblocks to large-scale developments. It will only be effective if it acts quickly and decisively and accepts the associated risks.
It is inevitable that political support for this focus on getting things done will be tested. The most recent data on mortgages from the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland should be enough to encourage politicians to screw their courage to the sticking-place.
While the amount of money being borrowed to buy homes is growing strongly - the figure for last year of €14.5 billion is the highest since 2008 - the rate of growth in borrowers is lagging behind. Put simply, this means that more people are being squeezed out of the housing market by rising prices.
The political consequence of this trend is obvious.
