Varadkar on Higgins: It is easier to describe a problem than to solve it

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has implicitly criticised the comments of the President Michael D Higgins that Irish housing policies are a “disaster” by saying it is much easier to describe a problem and make pronouncements about it than it is to come up with a solution.

Mr Varadkar, however, said he had no difficulty at all with the President making such comments and there was no bar on him doing so.

“I think it is right that the President is free to comment on matters. He doesn’t need to clear his speeches with the Government. That’s never been the case. It is the case for an address to the Dáil, but that’s not something he’s ever done. So I think he is free to comment on matters. And he is our First Citizen and has every right to do so,” Mr Varadkar said.

However, he took issue with the substance of the comments..

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“It’s always much easier to describe a problem and to make pronouncements about it than it is to actually come up with solutions and operationalise them and implement them,” Mr Varadkar said.

“That’s what I have to do, and that’s what we have to do as Ministers, that’s our job, not just to describe problems, but actually to come up with solutions and implement them. That’s a very different thing. And a much harder job.”

[ Analysis: Is President Michael D Higgins really ‘beyond criticism’? ]

Mr Varadkar was speaking at an event in the Iveagh Gardens Hotel in Dublin where a €50 million scheme to help businesses reduce their emissions and energy bills was announced.

Asked if he agreed with the President’s comments on housing policy as a disaster, Mr Varadkar said it was not a disaster for the 60 to 70 per cent of people who owned their own homes.

However, he added: “For some people it is (a disaster). If you’re paying very high rent, there are people who spend half their income on rent and, to me, that’s devastating.

“There are people who experience homelessness. Of course that’s a disaster. There are people who, you know, have decent jobs, work really hard. They don’t feel that they will ever be able to buy a home (event though they could have if they) had been doing the same job 20 years ago or 30 years ago. For them that’s really distressing.”

He said housing was a problem that successive governments had been grappling with for a long time.

[ Miriam Lord: First Citizen on the verge of going full-blown Michael D ]

He cited the Help-to-Buy scheme and the establishment of the Land Development Agency, which was building affordable cost-rental homes on State-owned land.

Mr Varadkar said the Government had the biggest social housing programme now in the history of the State.

“[A total of] 9,000 new social homes are being provided every year, more than the 1980s, the 1950s, the 1920s, anytime you want to talk about.

“The difficulty we have, the difficulty we all have, is it just isn’t happening fast enough. And we need to try to accelerate that.

“One of the things that gave me a little bit of comfort was looking at the figures that came out yesterday, which showed that in April alone, over 1,000 first-time buyers bought their first home. I can’t remember the last time in one month that happened. If we get that up to maybe 2000 or 3000, then I think we’d be in a very different space.”