Government halts project to build social homes, causing setback in housing delivery

The Government has been forced to defend the decision to stop a public-private partnership project that would have built thousands of new homes in Dublin city and surrounding counties.

Speaking on RTÉ's The Week in Politics, Minister of State Christopher O'Sullivan said the decision was 'a setback in terms of the number of homes that would have been delivered' but the Government also had to be responsible with taxpayers' money.

The delivery of almost 3,000 social homes across the country, 2,000 of which are in Dublin City was delayed after the minister for housing pulled the plug on funding for a number of projects that were about to begin construction because of value for money concerns.

The Construction Industry Federation yesterday said the move could threaten the public private partnership model and have implications for projects such as Metro North.

Three weeks ago the Department of Housing decided not to proceed with almost 500 social homes in Dublin, Wicklow, Kildare and Sligo that were due be delivered by a consortium under the public private partnership model due to value for money concerns.

It’s understood the cost of each of the units was more than €1 million and that figure had almost doubled compared to similar units that were delivered in 2020.

Watch: Minister O'Sullivan calls decision to halt project to build social homes 'a setback'

'Yes we have an absolute duty of care to the people of Ireland to end homelessness,' Mr O’Sullivan said, 'but we also have a duty of care to the taxpayers and when we are talking about figures in excess of €1m per unit, there has to be a point where we shout stop and look for that value for money.'

Speaking on the same programme, Sinn Féin TD Claire Kerrane said there is a need now to go back to local authorities for housing delivery.

'We need to go back to the local authorities. Obviously we do, when are we going to start doing it? We're 14 or 15 years now in to the housing crisis.'

She said housing needs to be declared an emergency.

'It hasn't been declared an emergency so we don't have the emergency powers,' she said, adding that builders cannot get credit, and local authorities are not building to the scale they should.

'It is getting worse and what is making it worse again is the Government continuing to say the housing plan working. It isn't working,' she added.

Gary Gannon (R) said an emergency response to the housing crisis required an emergency investment.

On ending public-private partnerships, Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon said there is a duty to the taxpayer, but the taxpayer is paying anyway for emergency accommodation that is affecting children negatively.

'Those children living in in hotel accommodation, they are being paid for by the taxpayer and the impacts that is having on their lives, the lifelong consequences that will also be funded by the taxpayer.'

'The state has not declared this an emergency, we need to be zoning land that is affordable, to have the State getting back building in a massive, significant way.

'We also need to understand the impact that these living conditions are having on children.'

He said local authorities need to be given emergency funds to get vacant homes up quickly, adding that an emergency response requires an emergency investment.

Mr O’Sullivan agreed the Government is willing to give funds to local authorities to provide homes, and also said there is a need for a standardised design to cut costs in delivering homes to simplify things.