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HOUSING MINISTER EOGHAN Murphy has defended the government’s record on house building after new data revealed that over 30,000 fewer homes have been built in recent years than was previously reported.
The CSO yesterday published its figures for the completion of new builds over the past seven years. The CSO had been asked to carry out this research after controversy mounted over how many homes were being built annually in Ireland.
For decades housing completions in Ireland have been measured through ESB connections – with a new connection indicating a new housing unit.
The Housing Department stopped officially using this measure last year, due to a lot of criticism from experts that the data being produced wasn’t accurate.
Yesterday’s CSO data showed that official government figures since 2011 have inflated the number of actual houses built in Ireland by over 30,000 units.
Figures from the Department from 2011 to 2017 had in the region of 85,000 new homes built. CSO figures show that the accurate amount is closer to 53,500.
The reason for the discrepancy is down to ESB connections being counted for buildings that weren’t new homes.
For example, last year there were 19,184 ESB connections counted in Ireland.
Of these, 14,446 were for new dwellings (so this is the number of new homes counted as built). Of the remaining connections:
Defence
The publication of the CSO data had prompted widespread criticism of the government and Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy, who is under pressure on a number of fronts to alleviate Ireland’s housing and homelessness crisis.
Speaking today on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, DIT housing lecturer Lorcan Sirr – one of the main critics of the use of ESB connections in measuring new builds – said the data called into question a lot of government targets and figures.
“The official figures from 2011 to 2017 say we build just over 85,000 houses. The reality as exposed by the CSO yesterday was that’s more like 53,500,” he said.
So we’re way behind on where we should be, which calls into question then the success of plans like Rebuilding Ireland.
Sirr also said that natural obsolescence of housing stock (houses that fall out of use) usually was about 0.5% every year – which he said equated to about 8,000 last year. Sirr said that the net gain in houses was therefore even lower than reported.
“If you’re not adding houses to your stock, you’re not solving the problem,” he said.
Sirr said that the lower figures called into question the capacity of the construction sector in Ireland to deliver on the targets laid out by government in its 2016 Rebuilding Ireland plan.
Also speaking on Morning Ireland, Minister Murphy defended his position and the government’s record in building houses.
“If we look at the total number of homes available to be used and occupied for families to live in at the end of 2017 it’s a 75% increase if we look at the end of 2015,” he said.
That’s looking at new builds and ghost homes being completed.
Murphy also defended the Rebuilding Ireland plan, saying that the government was on track to reach the targets set out in it.
“Rebuilding Ireland is there to get us to a steady state of 25,000 homes by 2020, we’ll get there before that,” he said.
“Everything under Rebuilding Ireland, all the indicators that we have… tell us that we’re making huge progress and the we’re ahead of target,” he said.
In relation to Sirr’s statement on housing obsolescence figures, Murphy said that government didn’t know what the number was.
“We don’t have that information yet,” he said, saying that he did not know on what basis housing obsolescence was being counted.
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Let’s blame Airbnb for a housing shortage that FG are unwilling and incapable of solving. Reduce capital gain tax and incentivise new developments through tax. Stop the building height restrictions. Half of north Dublin City is in ruin with empty houses all over it.
A few weeks ago he said he wasn’t going regulate it, I think this guy is making it up as he goes along.
Kirk he’s trying to be popular FG leadership coming up ok
A lot of people that rent out rooms etc on Airbnb, do so out of necessity. It provides an income supplement that many people needed during the height of the recession because of the austerity imposed by the government. Of course some people are going to make a fortune out of it, and more luck to them. In my opinion though, regulating Airbnb will only serve as a tax collecting tool, not something that will actually fix the housing crisis. I think their first port of call should be to reduce the tax on rental income that landlords have to pay. This would encourage more people to invest in property, as it would mean the property would pay for itself when rented out!
@pheilum. A lot of people also rent out entire properties on a full-time basis via airbnb. I agree that it won’t fix the housing crisis, but I strongly believe that those renting out full time should be regulated. They should have to apply for planning permission for change of use. After all, the premises is no longer a home. They should pay taxes and they should have to ensure that they meet health and safety standards. A person occasionally renting out a spare room entirely different.
Well if you agree that it won’t fix the housing crisis what is the problem? Btw who said they don’t pay taxes?
Coveney be better off regulating hotel prices in city’s over weekends ?
Only if he wants hotels to go out of business. Hotel prices are the sort of thing that don’t need regulation. If they’re too high, the rooms remain empty. If they’re too low, the hotel runs at a loss. Encouraging the building of more hotels – or the use of houses and apartments as short-term lets – would drive hotel prices down.
Convey, ask Europe what to do. If it suits FG, go for it , If not , ignore em. Ain’t that the FG way ?
Willy FG are a facist party
Regulate, regulate, regulate.
Keep regulating so that any competition to the status quo is abolished.
Keep regulating so that home owners can’t generate a small side income without being hammered with taxes.
Keep regulating so that there is no more innovation.
Keep regulating so that costs to employers are driver up thereby squeezing wages.
Keep regulating, Keep regulating, Keep regulating FFS.
Why isn’t there anyone standing up for property rights? Why is it the individual property owners responsibility to solve the housing crisis caused by government? The little guy paying the bills yet again
I don’t do ab&b but surely it’s a property owner’s responsibility to do what they want with he property they pay for?
Airbnb is responsible for bringing in tourists who spend a lot of €€€€€€€€, thread carefully.
Nanny state strikes again….
The more he interferes with the rental market the more flee from it ..including his beloved large professional landlord firms
The headline makes it sound like he’s looking for a brown envelope. “Satisfactory arrangement”, I wonder what that could mean?
When they say It’s not right, what they really mean is it exposes the government’s failure to adequately implement any real policy to address housing shortages. It has nothing to do with being right and everything to with making the government look incompetent and its housing policy look non-existent.
Airbnb overall increases the supply of accommodation. It has the potential to take an under-utilised resource… a house or apartment which is vacant part of the time or a place someone does not want to let long term and makes it available on the market.
Governments around the world are going to have to get used to a sharing economy and too technology easily, cheaply and efficiently connecting individuals with something to share with someone else that has need.
Why doesn’t he keep his fat nose out of our business?
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