The Government has vowed it will hit its housing targets for 2023 but declined to say when it might end homelessness.
During a quarter-two update on the Government’s Housing for All report yesterday, Minister Darragh O’Brien was unable to say how many social homes were completed in the first quarter of 2023.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Tanaiste Micheal Martin and Ministers Eamon Ryan and O’Brien announced details of a €150million fund to end long-term vacancy and dereliction in towns and cities.
Local authorities have indicated they could identify 946 projects that have the potential to generate 4,850 residential units.
Read more: Over 500 new homes given greenlight in Inchicore
They also published a Roadmap for Increased Adoption of Modern Methods of Construction in Public Housing Delivery. Housing Minister O’Brien confirmed work has started on 12,987 homes so far this year.
To date, some 6,716 homes were completed. However, Mr O’Brien said the Government did not have figures for how many social housing units were completed in the first quarter of 2023.
He refused to give reporters a “ballpark” figure when asked. The target for the full year is 9,100.
He also would not specify annualised targets for bringing down homelessness figures. In May, there were 12,441 people in emergency
accommodation.
Mr O’Brien said: “The number one priority is homelessness. We’ve far too many people in States-supported emergency accommodation. We have seen a slowdown in that but that’s no that’s no consolation to people who find themselves in that situation.
“The fundamental way to deal with this is through supply. I’m not going to set a target number to be straight with you. Fundamentally, it is about those who are in emergency accommodation that provide every assistance for them to exit from that.”
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