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TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR has stressed the government’s “progress” on tackling the housing crisis as he defends the lifting of the eviction ban and says that the current homelessness figures represent a “much more complicated picture” than people make out.
Varadkar provided an update on the government’s Housing for All policy this afternoon alongside Táiniste Micheál Martin, Green Party leader Eamon Ryan and Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien.
Speaking at the press conference the Taoiseach refused to give a target figure for the reduction in homelessness and said this was because of its complex nature.
“There are so many different factors at play,” the Taoiseach said.
“For example, a major cause of homelessness in Ireland is family breakdown, where the family splits up and needs two houses and not one. Nobody can predict the number of families that will break down next month or the month after.”
Varadkar also noted the “increasing number of arrivals of non-Irish citizens”, and said no one can predict the number of people who are not Irish citizens who may arrive here and seek emergency accommodation.
“What we have seen is the slow down in the rate of increase [of homelessness] in the last couple of months,” Varadkar said.
“The eviction ban, when it was in place, didn’t cause homelessness to fall but it did cause it to rise more slowly for a period of time. But it hasn’t taken off since then in the way that some people have predicted,” he added.
The government announced today a €150mn fund to tackle long-term property vacancy and dereliction which it says will help expand housing supply.
The fund will be available to local authorities under the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund.
The government has said that in addition to 100% grant aid to fund the acquisition of suitable properties, local authorities will also be funded 20% of their allocation in advance to “make sure they are well resourced to tackle this issue”.
Adding to the Taoiseach’s comments, Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien said: “We’ve always said that we need to use every single tool in our armoury to get to grips with the challenges of housing. And that’s exactly what we’re doing.”
He noted that so far this year, the Tenant in Situ scheme has surpassed its target of acquiring 1,500 properties with 2,412 properties purchased or in the process of being purchased under the scheme.
Commenting on the announcement earlier that the government’s First Right of Refusal legislation has been delayed until autumn, the Housing Minister said the scheme is “effectively in practice” already.
Under the legislation, landlord’s who are selling their properties would be obligated to give their tenants the opportunity to buy the property ahead of other potential buyers.
When the measure was initially announced, the minister suggested that an independent valuation would be sought and if the tenant could pay that asking price, the property would be sold to them.
However, speaking at the press conference this afternoon, O’Brien said that he wants to make sure that whatever measures are brought forward do not elongate the conveyancing process and in effect slow the house purchase process further.
Elsewhere, O’Brien said that, if passed, a motion to be put forward by Sinn Féin on homelessness later today will “make the situation worse”.
In its motion, Sinn Féin will call on the government to introduce a three-year ban on rent increases and introduce a tax credit for private renters equivalent to one month’s rent.
According to the Department of Housing’s latest data, homelessness figures topped their previous record at the end of June, with 12,411 people in emergency accommodation in May.
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The difference?
Things are worse than ever.
@Chris O’Brien: why are the government congratulating themselves on buying existing homes?? That’s robbing Peter to pay Paul. We need new builds and renovations, simple as!
@mcgarry098:
“There are so many different factors at play,” the Taoiseach said.
“For example, a major cause of homelessness in Ireland is family breakdown, where the family splits up and needs two houses and not one. Nobody can predict the number of families that will break down next month or the month after.”
What a weak excuse from Leo and he’s only saying this now regarding a crisis that was first flagged ten years ago. Apart from laying out the red carpet for Vulture/Cuckoo funds which adversely led to huge increases in the cost of renting what has he and the last three Ministers for Housing actually done to ease this atrocious crisis?
@mcgarry098: ala the policy to put 400 refugees in student accommodation …displace 400 hundred students just to say they housed 400 refugees..the net result is still 400 people needing accommodation.This crowd wouldn’t run a bath between them.
Oh dear, Varadkar says progress is being made, that can’t be good news.
@Ross O’: i.e. the complete opposite is happening.
@David Corrigan: Imagine after all these years homelessness is caused by relationships breaking down according to Leo.
Are FFG not aware that thousands of couples whose relationship has finished are forced to remain under the same roof because of simple economics and a dearth of available properties ?
@Frank Cauldhame: They are not with it at all Frank. Making it up as they go a long.
Why are the government congratulating themselves on buying existing homes? That’s robbing Peter to pay Paul. We need new builds and renovations.
Actually it’s worse then that, people who actually saved to buy a house can’t do it because there’s no affordable ones out there because the government have bought them all to give away for free as social housing…
So after the celtic tiger dropped dead ffg and there overlords decided that they wanted to change the irish housing market by bringing in big corporate landlords and shift the irish physic on long term rental as apposed to individual ownership.
These guys are not incompetent, what we are suffering is a consequence of deliberate policy designed to protect the interests of a few. In any well-organised democracy, these people would face charges given the number of lives that have been and are being, destroyed.
@Jim O’Sullivan: Agreed.Ive said it before Michael Noonan alone should have been tried for economic treason for his vulture fund and banking policies ..FG have completely shafted the Irish people while playing best boy in the class to their EU masters.
Absolutely nothing done or proposed to alleviate the chronic housing shortage available to people who try and do the right thing, like work hard and buy their own home.
Every government policy is to stack the odds more against them, with a whole raft of government bodies lining up to buy new houses for social housing as well as investment funds buying large tracts of properties- again for long term rental back to the social housing market. Private buyers are again locked out of the sale of rented houses by local authorities being mandated to gazump any offer they may make.
Is he for real its getting worse by the day
Varadkar provided an update on the government’s Housing for All policy this afternoon alongside Tánaiste Michael Martin, Green Party leader Eamon Ryan and Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien. Well let me give an update, I started working in the late 70s and in 1980 I with my wife were able to buy a site which was called a serviced site this was brought from the county council and we got a load from the council and we built our home we both had jobs I worked and a factory and my wife in local shop , we had menial wages we had no car but it was possible to build your own home. Who put a stop to all that the government party’s that are in power, You lot should hang your heads in shame you have deprived the people of a home. you have taken away a future for many in this country. Its heart breaking .
At last the journal has reported on something else rather than RTE and Tubirty. No reporting by the Journal yesterday when the story broke concerning the mess created by FFG / Greens concerning fallout from removal of eviction ban.. RTE at least covered the story. FFG/ Greens again must be on bended knees thanking God for the RTE scandal. In fairness the FFG/ Greens got more deflection from this than the invasion of Ukraine or the civil war in Sudan.
One party has had power for the last 100 years plus.
Everything broken in this country is due to that party’s behaviour. No one else is to blame.
Broken justice system? FFFG
Broken housing? FFFG
Broken public transport? FFFG
Broken schools? FFFG
Broken healthcare? FFFG
Endless corruption? FFFG
Now you can pretend this will change by voting for… FFFG, but when it doesn’t you’ll only need a mirror to find the culprit.
Okay, why are house prices not falling if you are flooding the market with all these magic homes?
And nobody in FG or indeed FF did anything about these complicated factors for the last 2 decades at leasrt….they created this problem and there is no way they will fix it as to do so would mean a large admitting of wrong policy in the first place..Thats why they keep ploughing on in the same wrong direction making the same mistakes and refusing to listen to not only the opposition but experts in the field of housing, homelessness etc.WE NEED CHANGE and ASAP.
What progress we seem to be going backwards as usual!!
They will never get control of the housing problem, they are only semi serious about solving it.
That picture is worth sticking up on the wall as a reminder of the smug, self-satsfied clique that have deprived our young people of any chance of a home. Remember them soon on election day.
It present a much more difficult picture?
Of course otherwise they can’t spin the numbers into their favour. Its so simple if you don’t have a home to live then you’re homeless.
Round The House And Mind The Dresser
The lads had another good, hard circle jerk.
And he is right. People refuse housing for all manners of reasons. Just recently Cork City council revealed that people refused housing for not having a garage, no room to park a bike, didnt like the kitchen, the area, too far from mammy .
@jimosullivan
More better job prospects, many more top paying jobs and unlimited access to third level. Zero reason a couple could not afford to buy a house in Dublin , and I dont mean D4 or on the Quays. Never ever was easy to buy a house, need to save , no take out coffees, pet dogs, take out meals , holidays ,, subscriptions , smokes, . A couple earning 120,00 between should be able to save. And I am not the only one, plenty in my club felt the same
@Peter Byrne: Were you in school they day they did 2+2….cos it doesn’t equal anything like you claim it does..A couple earning 120 k could not possibly qualify for a 400 or 500k mortgage which living in Dublin would require and while paying up to 2000 monthly rent how do they save the 80k deposit …oh yeah stop drinking take away coffee …Jesus wept.
You would think by the comments on here that Iteland is the only country with a homeless problem
London has 4,000 people actually living on the streets, and more than 370,000 in emergency accommodation.
France has a similar problem as does Spain and Italy
The German economic powerhouse of Europe even struggles. Even the so called low rents in Berlin are rapidly rising.
And the US , so called leader of the free world has millions of people on the streets. Nigeria has 24 million homeless out of a population of 180 million
@Peter Byrne: So everything is just fine then, is that what you are saying?
@Peter Byrne: Compare the populations will you like a good man. We have 11,000+ homeless and that figure comes from some dodgy metric that they use. It’s way worse than that if the calculations were totted up correctly.
And finally I bought my first home when I was 25, because I saved hard from when I got my first job at 18. Most people coming out of college dont start working until about 26 or 27.
Home prices are lower than ever plenty houses and apartments for sale where I live
@Peter Byrne: What’s your address so we can send you your Blue Peter badge?
@Peter Byrne:
“House prices are lower than ever”
-The average house price has reached a new record of €359,000 in Ireland, a rise of more than €1,300 a month in a year, the latest figures show.
“plenty houses and apartments for sale”
-Stock of second-hand homes for sale drops by 26% in three years
-Ireland may need up to 62,000 new homes a year, Housing Commission indicates
Unpublished research suggests State requires almost double current Government annual target for new builds
“where I live”
You clearly don’t live in Ireland.
Unfortunately the housing crisis is not unique to Ireland although the media and d lefties would give that impression…UK,Germany France, Sweden now Australia and New Zealand have joined…
The root cause of every problem the country is currently facing, in one photograph!
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