Home ownership should be fundamental public policy, says Minister

Minister for Housing Darragh O'Brien has said he wants to make home ownership a cornerstone of Government policy on housing.

"Home ownership is not something that should fall down the list ... It's good for people, it's good for our country," Mr O'Brien said, noting that Ireland was now behind the EU average in home ownership.

“You have a whole generation of people who are seeing the dream of home ownership slipping away: that’s why I as Minister am putting in place measures to help people purchase,” he told a webinar event hosted by the Dublin Economics Workshop and Trinity Research in the Social Sciences.

The event was looking Government proposals to establish a housing commission.

Consumer prices fall 1% in December as fuel, clothing costs decline

---

Simone Rocha collaborates with H&M on new designer collection

---

Global tax reform to be ‘re-energised’ under Biden, says Donohoe

---

Should empty-nesters be encouraged to move to smaller homes ?

---

The commission pledges to examine issues such as tenure, standards, sustainability and quality-of-life issues in the provision of housing in Ireland, and to look at lessons Ireland can learn from abroad.

Mr O’Brien said he was at an advanced stage of setting up the commission’s proposed terms of reference but said there was not “a one-size-fits-all approach”.

“We need to ensure we know exactly what we want from a housing commission in Ireland,” he said. The potential benefits of establishing an advisory commission are agreed “but will only be successful if we establish the right commission for Ireland”, he said.

Delaying mechanism

Mr O’Brien said he did not want the commission to end up duplicating work already being done or to become a silo for delaying policy measures. It would have to make “implementable suggestions” and would have a role in looking at other policies and legislative proposals “and stress-test some of those proposals that come forward”.

Mr O’Brien said one of the key issues was supply. According to a new report from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), the State needs to build 28,000 new homes every year for the next two decades just to keep pace with population growth.

This is significantly ahead of the current level of supply, which is expected to be about 20,000 in 2020.

* This article was edited on January 27th, 2021.