Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien talks up progress in face of increased homelessness

The State is delivering social housing at a rate not seen since the 1970s, according to the Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien who, despite record levels of homelessness, expressed optimism that progress is being made in tackling the housing crisis.

Figures from his department released on Friday evening showed that homeless numbers in Ireland have hit another record high of 11,754 people including 3,431 children.

Speaking at the Property Show in the RDS in Dublin Mr O’Brien accepted that issue “remains the biggest single challenge” while also pointing to the struggles people face when trying to buy their own homes, the lack of social housing and low levels of activity in the construction sector over the last decade.

“Fundamentally, we need to get supply up and that’s why last year was, I believe, a very significant year, where we delivered 30,000 new homes,” he told The Irish Times. “In the next couple of weeks, I’ll be announcing the social housing figures, which will be over 10,000 which will be more than we have done since 1975. Now, is it enough? No, we need to do more. But it’s a good start.”

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He said the best way to address the increase in numbers relying on homeless emergency accommodation was to ensure “they have safe and secure homes to live in, so it’s about building more, it’s about using the stock that we have better”.

He stressed that tackling the crisis was “not easy, and it’s not without its challenges but I think any fair estimation, when you look at our overall targets being exceeded very substantially last year [and] a good pipeline for this year” there is reason to be “optimistic”.

He pointed out that, despite double digit price inflation in recent years, around 25,00 first time buyers entered the property market last year and he said the Government would do what it could “to make sure that those homes are affordable”.

He pointed to multiple housing schemes rolled out by his department, including the First Home shared equity scheme which he said was “really important. There was a lot of noise around the First Home scheme. I fought tooth and nail to put that scheme in place because I know it will work, because I know that there are renters out there paying €2,000 in rent, whereas if they get a mortgage, they’re paying €1,100 or €1,200.

He said 1,000 people had availed of the scheme with the State “stepping in in a real tangible way to bridge that affordability gap. So for working people who are above the social housing limits and who have felt this large degree of hopelessness over the last 10 to 12 years in particular, the measures that we brought in last year are starting to take hold. Not everyone’s feeling it yet and I get that completely and that’s why we’ve got to push it harder and harder and harder.”

Rate increases

Mr O’Brien accepted that multiple rate increases from the European Central Bank (ECB) since the middle of last year had been “really difficult for people” but he stressed the independence of the ECB when it comes to setting rates. “The reason they’re doing that is to try to drive down inflation, overall inflation hurts everyone. Thankfully, we are seeing inflation in Ireland reduce [and] reduce ahead of most of our European partners. But it is tough for people, particularly those who were on tracker rates.”

He said it was likely there would be at least two more increases in the months ahead and pointed to the cohort who have mortgages with the non-bank lenders who are now paying up to 8 per cent as a result of the ECB increases.

He said the Minister for Finance Michael McGrath is working with the Central Bank to draw up a code of conduct to protect the most vulnerable of borrowers.