Sinn Féin councillor and general election candidate Conor D. McGuinness has responded to the latest Central Statistics Office (CSO) new home completion figures, saying that new home building had stalled because the government’s housing plan is failing. He made the remarks as data shows that house prices in Co, Waterford continue to spiral out of control amid continued dysfunction in the private rental market locally.
McGuinness said:
“The latest CSO home completion figures show that in the first three months of this year, fewer homes were built than in the first three quarters of 2023.
“To date this year, 21,634 new homes were completed according to the CSO. This compared with 22,325 during the same period last year, a drop of 691 homes.
“This is separate from the failure by Government to deliver a single affordable unit in Co. Waterford, and the frustratingly slow pace of delivery when it comes to Department approval for social housing in Waterford.
“For months, Darragh O’Brien and his cabinet colleagues have been claiming that new home completions will hit 40,000 this year. However, based on today’s figures, that claim is simply not credible.
“While new home completions are likely to increase in the last quarter of the year, it is hard to see the total number of homes built this year exceeding last year’s total of 32,000.
“The reason why new home building is stalling is because the government’s housing plan is failing.
“They have failed to resource our planning system, failed to provide SME builders with access to competitive credit, failed to reform the approval and procurement processes for public housing, and failed to invest in the delivery of an adequate supply of social and affordable homes.
“The result is once again too few new homes are being built, while house prices and rents continue to spiral upwards and the number of people on council waiting lists and in homelessness continues to grow.
“Sinn Féin’s alternative housing plan sets out how Sinn Féin in government will address all of these issues in order to ramp up public and private housing delivery to an average of 60,000 new homes a year, with at least 25,000 of these being social and affordable.
“Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael can not fix the housing crisis because their policies created that crisis. The housing crisis will only be fixed with a change of government and a change of housing plan.”
Conor D. McGuinness TD 