It will be “a number of years” before 40,000 new homes per annum can be delivered, according to Tánaiste Micheál Martin.
The Coalition’s Housing for All plan has a target of delivering 33,000 homes per year on average up to 2030. However, it is now believed this figure is too low, amid some suggestions that at least 40,000 homes need to be delivered each year to match population growth.
The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) has been asked to look at population trends and other metrics and advise the Government what the actual number should be in the years to come. After this, the Housing for All target is expected to be revised upwards.
Mr Martin said there had been an increase in housing delivery numbers “year-by-year”.
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“We do want to get to a higher number than 30,000 and what I would like to think, in 2024, we can build, again on what we’ve achieved in 2023,” the Fianna Fáil leader said.
He said some people were estimating that 32,000 new homes would have been delivered in 2023 though the final figures would not be available until early 2024.
“Since the government came in… by the end of this year we should have about 100,000 homes completed.
“The pipeline is strong on social housing, strong on a number of fronts. But we have to keep on looking at ways to accelerate house building and that relates to capacity within the housing industry,” he added.
He said there were “a number of strands of work” happening within Government in relation to public and private investment in housing, the introduction of modern methods of construction and efforts to build capacity in the construction workforce including through apprenticeships.
“There’s lots of factors to come together to increase productivity and capacity. We will spare no effort. The targets we have are not limits... if we can exceed those targets, we will,” Mr Martin said.
Put to him that it is known about 40,000 homes per year were needed, Mr Martin said there had been a “dramatic increase” in delivery of some 40 per cent in the last few years.
Asked if a target of 40,000 per year could be met, he said: “I think we will incrementally increase… Within a number of years, we could be at 40,000 per annum.”
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