In 2023, the government fell short of reaching its goal in terms of the provision of affordable and social housing, lacking nearly 2,700 properties. Although an increase of 16.33% from 2022 resulted in 11,939 new social houses built, it was yet behind the government’s objective of 13,130 houses by a deficit of 1,191.
Last year, among the 11,939 social homes produced, local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies accounted 8,110 as newly built houses, while 1,830 were acquisitions and 1,999 were a result of leasing programmes.
New homes built by local authorities amounted to 2,429 with Dublin City Council leading the way with 323 houses, followed by Cork City Council’s 263 and South Dublin County Council’s 190. Nevertheless, Monaghan County Council built the least number of houses, only 12, followed by Cavan County Council’s 27 and Donegal’s 28.
More than half, specifically 7,132, of the social houses were built during the last quarter of 2023.
However, there were only 4,011 affordable houses available in 2023 rather than the intended target of 5,500. According to a breakdown per local authority, South Dublin County Council headed the list with 650 homes, closing on was Fingal County Council with 630. Leitrim County Council recorded the least number of affordable homes with only three, followed by Longford County Council’s five and Kerry County Council’s seven properties.
Darragh O’Brien, the Minister for Housing, stated that there was no one universal solution as different local authorities were faced with varying challenges. As such, ongoing cooperation and engagement have been vital and are expected to be crucial to achieving the overarching Housing for All objectives that were first established in 2021, plus responding to the expected increase in future targets.
Cian O’Callaghan, a Social Democrats TD and housing representative, has asserted that amidst record levels of homelessness, the inability to achieve social housing objectives has had “colossal adverse effects”. According to him, the government is not willing to recognise that the core issue of the housing calamity is a matter of affordability. This has resulted in over half a million adults remaining in their youth bedrooms and upwards of 4,000 children being raised within emergency housing.