Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has defended Fine Gael’s plans to develop its own proposals to tackle the housing crisis, saying it would be “strange” for any party not to talk about the issue.
It was reported last week that Fine Gael will seek substantial new interventions in the property market later this year including the possibility of an increase in income thresholds for social housing eligibility.
Senior Fine Gael sources suggested to the Irish Times that there would be an emphasis on housing after the office of Taoiseach changes hands in December.
News of Fine Gael’s plan to intervene on the issue raised hackles among Fianna Fáil backbenchers as their party currently holds the housing brief in Government with some highlighting how the housing crisis has endured during a decade of Fine Gael-led governments.
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Fine Gael sources meanwhile, have pointed to areas of its responsibility in Government like justice where Fianna Fáil TDs have made their own proposals in recent times.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin last month signalled his intention to retain Darragh O’Brien as Minister for Housing in the upcoming Government reshuffle, though the allocation of ministries has not yet formally been discussed.
At a press conference in Dublin Mr Varadkar brushed aside questions on the allocation of Cabinet portfolios in the December reshuffle.
Asked if the parties would retain their current ministries he said: “The [Coalition] agreement is there in black and white for everyone to read. So obviously that will all be discussed nearer the time.
“My focus and that of the Taoiseach isn’t on what’s going to happen in December.
“It’s on the things that are important now including dealing with the cost of living crisis and other issues.”
Asked if Fine Gael would seek the housing portfolio he said: “All that is for December. We’re not focused on any of that now. We’re focused on the job at hand.”
Mr Varadkar defended Fine Gael’s record on housing and plans to develop proposals in the area.
He argued that of Fine Gael’s time in Government his party has directly held the housing portfolio “for maybe three or four” years.
“The way people talk sometimes you’d be forgiven for thinking we had the housing portfolio for 11 or 12 years which we didn’t,” he said.
He highlighted how Labour politicians held junior and senior housing roles during the 2011 to 2016 Coalition Government while Fianna Fáil has held the brief since 2020.
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Mr Varadkar said that Fine Gael had a special parliamentary party meeting on the housing crisis last week “and what solutions could we bring forward to speed up Housing for All”, the Government’s landmark plan to tackle the crisis.
He said the party has had thematic meetings on other issues like the cost-of-living as well.
“We are a political party and we are absolutely going to continue to talk about the issues that people raise with us,” he said, adding that housing was among issues raised with him when he was knocking on constituents’ doors in Dublin West at the weekend.
Mr Varadkar said: “It would be strange to me that if any political party decided that it wasn’t going to talk about housing.
“Of course we want to talk about it and try to come up with solutions.”
Earlier in the press conference Mr Varadkar identified the housing and banking crash 12 years ago as the underlying cause of the housing crisis.
“The construction industry has never fully recovered since then, doesn’t have the capacity to build as many houses as we’d like it to or are able to build back then,” he said.
He said there will probably be 25,000 homes built this year — “more than any year in the last 10 years” — but there is a rising population and “a construction industry that doesn’t have the capacity to deliver in the way that we’d like it to”.
Mr Varadkar said such issues are not unique to Ireland and “a lot of progress is being made” highlighting how of 50,000 homes that changed hands last year, a third were bought by first-time buyers.
