Sinn Féin spokesperson on Housing, Eoin Ó Broin TD, has said that there has been little progress in the delivery of affordable and social housing.

The Dublin Mid-West TD’s comments come as Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien published his Q1 2024 Housing Progress Report, which detailed just 158 new-build social homes, 32 new-build affordable purchase homes and 24 new-build cost-rental homes were delivered in the first three months of this year.

Teachta Ó Broin said:

“Today, Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien published his so-called progress report for the first quarter of this year. As with previous launches, the Minister is working overtime to make a bad situation look positive.

“But when you pull away the spin and misdirection, the facts speak for themselves. His housing plan promises 9300 new-build social homes and 4,400 affordable rental and purchase homes to be delivered by Local Authorities, Approved Housing Bodies, and the Land Development Agency. That is a total of 13,700 public homes to meet social and affordable housing need in 2024.

“Buried in the fine print of today’s report, we can see that the government is, as usual, way behind these targets.

“Just 158 new-build social homes, 32 new-build affordable purchase homes and 24 new-build cost rental homes were delivered in the first three months of this year. And while construction activity typically accelerates in the second half of the year, the fact that less than 2% of the yearly target has been delivered in the first quarter is deeply worrying.

“Worse still is that too many of the small number of affordable homes that have been delivered are simply unaffordable to the vast majority of people. AHB and LDA cost rents are too high and rising. As we have seen in Oscar Traynor Road, even Dublin City Council accepts that their affordable purchase prices are not affordable.

“As long as this government is in power, there will be no real progress on housing. Rents and house prices will continue to rise, more and more people will become homeless, and Darragh O’Brien will continue to miss his affordable and social housing targets, which were too low to begin with.”