Sinn Féin spokesperson on Housing, Eoin Ó Broin TD, has said that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael’s pre-election lies on housing have now been exposed.

The Dublin Mid-West TD made his comments after Central Statistics Office (CSO) home completion data released this week proved that the government parties misled the electorate in the run-up to November’s General Election.

Deputy Ó Broin called on Fianna Fáil’s newly-appointed Minister for Housing, James Browne, to come clean.

Teachta Ó Broin said:

“Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael’s pre-election lies on housing delivery have been completely exposed.

“The government clearly and deliberately misled the electorate in the run-up to November’s General Election.

“Throughout last year, particularly during the election campaign, the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and the then Minister for Housing all said that up to 40,000 new homes would be built in 2024.

“The government knew damn well that this claim was neither credible nor true, but they repeated this misinformation time and time again regardless.

“The CSO has this week confirmed that just 30,000 new homes were built last year.

“In response, the government is trying to deflect from their lies by repeating Darragh O’Brien’s claim that 60,000 new homes started on site last year. This is another barefaced lie.

“While 60,000 commencement notices were submitted to Local Authorities in 2024, many of these homes have not actually started on site.

“Everyone knows that the development levy and water connection waiver deadlines in April and September artificially skewed the figures as developers submitted extra notices to avail of the waiver.

“The new Minister for Housing James Browne has a decision to make on whether he continues with the same dishonest style of his predecessor or if he will bring some level of honesty to the housing debate.

“Minister Browne needs to come clean on the issue of commencement notices and admit that the figures have been artificially inflated.

“He also needs to publish, as a matter of urgency, the full social and affordable housing figures for last year, so that the public can see the extent to which the government missed their own public housing targets in 2024 and the extent to which they were misled by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in the run-up to the General Election.”