Sinn Féin spokesperson on Housing Eoin Ó Broin TD has accused Minister Darragh O’Brien of deliberately misleading the public on social housing delivery in 2021. 

The Q4 social housing figures for 2021 indicate that only 55% of the new build social housing delivery target was reached by the end of the year.

The Dublin Mid-West TD said this government continues to over rely on the private rented sector for so called social housing “solutions”, with 72% of the social housing output for 2021 sourced from the private rented sector. 

Teachta Ó Broin said:

“This morning, Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien finally published the Q4 social housing figures for 2021.

“Despite his attempts to spin the figures and mislead the public, the truth is that the figures speak for themselves. 

“The Minister had a social housing build, acquisition and leasing target of 12,750 homes. Just 9,183 were delivered. That’s a shortfall of 28%.

“The Minister had a new build target for 2021 of 9,500 social homes. Just 5,202 were delivered. That’s a shortfall of 45%.

“28% of the social housing output for 2021 were homes built and bought by councils and approved housing bodies. This is simply not good enough.

“The situation gets even worse when you compare these figures with the number of social homes that are leased from private property owners.

“72% of the government’s social housing delivery for 2021 was through leasing, and schemes including the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) and the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP).

“The failure of this government to deliver in terms of real social housing construction is apparent. Covid19 disruptions are only part of the reason for the target shortfall.

“Red tape imposed by the Departments of Housing and Public Expenditure and Reform are also delaying social housing new build projects.

“The Minister must now re-think his social housing targets for 2022 and revise them upwards. He must remove the bureaucratic barriers that impede the delivery of social housing by local authorities at scale. 

“The public spending code and the laborious four stage approvals process is having a detrimental impact on the delivery of public homes.”