Minister for Housing James Browne has insisted he is still trying to “end the housing crisis” in his ministerial term, despite his own Government predicting that the crisis will endure for at least another 15 years.
Mr Browne appeared to demur against analysis from the Department of Justice, which predicted Ireland’s housing crisis is likely to persist for at least another 15 years. Future Forty: A Fiscal and Economic Outlook to 2065 is the department’s assessment of the economic and fiscal challenges facing the State between now and 2065.
The report, which was published on Tuesday, said that housing demand was not expected to peak until the early 2030s, it said, with “pent-up demand” not fully eliminated until at least 2040.
Mr Browne told reporters on Wednesday: “I am going to end the housing crisis in my term and I believe that can be done.”
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Mr Browne said that the Future Forty report was “trying to land on a centre point” between almost 2,000 different scenarios.
The Minister pointed out that one of those scenarios was a “no-change model”.
“And I’m certainly not accepting a no-change model. We are driving change,” he said.
“We’ve made huge decisions over the last eight months, very substantial changes, some of them not always popular but I believe are necessary to deliver and drive home delivery.”
Mr Browne is expected to publish the next long-awaited Housing for All plan next week.
[ Ireland’s housing crisis to last another 15 years, Department of Finance predictsOpens in new window ]
Asked if he still anticipated that it would be 2030 before the Government reaches a target of 60,000 units a year, Mr Browne said he was “totally results-driven rather than targets-driven”.
“It’s how we get those homes built as quickly as possible. And if that’s 60,000 by that date, that’s what we where we want to get to.”
Mr Browne again defended his decision to hire broadcaster Ivan Yates to provide him with media training. The Minister was asked about whether or not it was appropriate for him to pay Mr Yates for communications training, given Mr Yates is linked to a property development firm.
Mr Browne was trained by Mr Yates since his appointment as Minister for Housing this year. Mr Browne said the commentator and broadcaster “never had any input in policy, no role in advising whatsoever”.
“I don’t see any particular issue with taking media training from somebody who was very much just focused on media training,” Mr Browne said.
[ How Ivan Yates’s links to Fianna Fáil landed him, and the party, in hot waterOpens in new window ]
He added: “I paid for the services of media training and that’s what I got. There was no role in an advisory capacity or policy setting in any way, shape or form.”
Mr Browne was speaking at the launch of a new development of social and cost-rental homes in Skerries, Co Dublin. The Paddocks development involved Tuath Housing and Fingal County Council.
The cost-rental units are priced at €1,300 per month for a one bed, and €1,565 per month for a two bed. It is part of a wider Ballygossan Hill development, which also includes a creche.
The launch heard from Matthew Travers, a Dublin man who was one of the first to sign a lease on one of the new units at The Paddocks. Mr Travers was homeless for more than a year, after his former rental property in Dublin was sold by his former landlord.
Mr Travers, who has now lived in the development for four months, described how he had signed the lease “with a joyous heart”.
“I danced around and as soon as I walked out of that place, I was delighted,” Mr Travers said.
“Every day my heart pounds with joy knowing I get to wake up in my forever home,” Mr Travers said. “I’ll never forget this feeling, I’ll never let it go either.”
