Sinn Féin spokesperson on Housing, Eoin Ó Broin TD, has called on Minister Darragh O’Brien ‘to state how many new build social homes he believes will be delivered this year’.

The call comes after new Department of Housing social housing output data for Q2 2022 show that just 20% of the planned 9,000 new build social homes have been delivered in the first half of the year.

Teachta Ó Broin said: 

“The Government’s housing plan commits to 9,000 new build social homes to be delivered in 2022. These homes are delivered by Local Authorities and Approved Housing Bodies through own developments, turnkey developments and Part V homes.

“According to the latest figures released by the Department of Housing, only 1,765 new build social homes have been delivered by the end of June. 639 of these were delivered in Quarter 1 of this year and 1,126 in Quarter 2.

“These figures are deeply concerning and suggest that Darragh O’Brien may miss his social housing new build targets for the third year in a row. Minister O’Brien’s missed targets are one of the main causes of rising levels of homelessness.

“In 2020 and 2021, Government was thousands of social homes short of their target. While Minister O’Brien blamed Covid for the shortfall, other factors including Department of Housing bureaucracy, were also at play.

“This year there were no Covid related closures of construction sites, so you would have expected social housing output to get back on track. On the basis of the figures released by the Department, this does not seem to be the case.

“Darragh O’Brien needs to come out and state how many new build social homes he expects to deliver this year. He also must explain why the missed targets are not added to subsequent years targets, rather than just being accepted as undelivered.”