Fine Gael has pledged to deliver over 300,000 homes in the next six years under a new €40 billion housing plan unveiled by the party.
Taoiseach Simon Harris announced the party proposes to complete 303,000 homes between 2025 and 2030 on Monday, a rate of just over 50,000 homes a year.
Mr Harris said that 53 per cent of the homes built will receive some form of support from the State. He said that there would be an average of €2 billion in additional funding each year being spent on housing by 2030. He added that the Land Development Agency would be expanded.
The plan also proposes a €10 billion raid on the Apple tax fund to help finance the programme.
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The plan has committed to increase the help to buy grant to €40,000 and to extend the scheme to first-time buyers of second-hand homes, an increase of a third since the last change in 2020. The party plans to keep that scheme in place until 2030.
Mr Harris said that a “red line issue” for the party would be the help to buy scheme, which he insisted would remain if Fine Gael were in Government.
“We will not go into Government in any scenario where the rug is pulled from first-time buyers. Not doing it,” he said.
He contended that Fine Gael initiatives would be worth up to €40,000 to first-time buyers, plus an additional €90,000 in the first home scheme (where the State or a bank takes a stake in the property).
By contrast, he claimed, Sinn Féin’s housing policy would offer support of only €4,500 to first-time buyers.
The Taoiseach told a press conference in Dublin that housing remains the greatest challenge that the State faces. “It is the single biggest societal and economic concern across Ireland,” said Mr Harris.
“We have to scale up ambition. We need to take bold steps to increase supply,” he said.
“For every home delivered in the past five years, we will build two in the next five years.”
The plan envisages 66,500 social homes; 51,000 affordable homes; and 20,250 cost rentals, with the remaining 165,000 homes being private.
Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe said that more serviced land was needed in Dublin and across the country for balanced development.
The party has also pledged to increase the rent tax credit to €1,500 per individual, or €3,000 per couple. It has also committed to maintain the rent pressure zones and continue the landlord tax credit to 2030.
Asked if the construction sector had the capacity to avail of the €10 billion injection of funding from the Apple Tax fund, Mr Donohoe said that the programme would expand on a phased basis to allow capacity increase.
Minister of State Alan Dillon, a TD for Mayo, said at the launch that the party was committing to building 50 per cent of the new homes are built outside the five major cities.
He said that part of Fine Gael’s plans would be to get better use of existing properties and to continue and expand vacant property schemes.
Mr Dillon also expressed support for one-off houses in rural Ireland. “Fine Gael is committed to supporting once-off self-builds,” he said.
The party’s candidate in Galway East, Niamh Madden, said an expansion of the living city initiative and the over-the-shop policy would go a “long way to” to support people seeking a home, while also maintaining the Government’s housing stock.
Mr Harris defended the party’s housing record and charges that it would not be capable of delivering. “It’s a whole-of-Government issue,” he said. “It will fall to many more people than the housing minister. Why can people believe us? Because we are telling the truth. The people of Ireland know and will not be fooled by anybody. This country’s economy was crashed and the construction industry did not have a bob. There were ghost estates all over the place.
“We have gone from 7,000 a year being built when I first became a TD to almost 40,000 this year.”
He said that Fine Gael would “put its money where its mouth was” in terms of its plans.
He accepted that there was a need to do more but defended what steps had been taken, including the provision of social homes.
Mr Donohoe said the party was crucially aware of the issue of homelessness and said that the party wanted to introduce further measures to reduce the risk of people becoming homeless, with the expansion of one-bedroom units, and an expansion social housing tenant in situ programme.
“It is the reason why we have increased the budget. It is a challenge and a crisis we are aware of and (to which) we are responding,” he said.
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