OLoughlin welcomes launch of Athgarvan Road units and states that FF forces Govt to tackle the under supply of social homes in Budget 2019
It is great to see the units being opened albeit after a 15 year wait and at an excessive price per unit. I wishe the new residents good health and happiness in their new homes-and is also glad that the residents in adjoining Liffey Terrace are also having improvement works facilitated.
The measures announced as part of Budget 2019 to address the severe deficits in social housing across the country were fought for during the party’s Budget negotiations with Government.
The housing crisis has been Fianna Fails priority since we entered into the Confidence & Supply arrangement. We have forced the overall capital budget in housing to increase from €430m in 2016 to €1.34bn in Budget 2019. This is a €900m increase or over 300%.
Social and affordable homes are desperately needed and a major programme of social housing building is the only means of bringing them quickly on stream to alleviate the crisis in demand.
Local authorities were set very ambitious targets for building social housing but to do have been heavily impeded by sheer bureaucracy in Government. During Budget negotiations we sought to triple the Local Authority discretion to from €2m to €6m.
By cutting through red tape, Fianna Fáil has facilitated Local Authorities to by-pass planning hoops in the Department of Housing. Councils will now be in the position to build up to 30 social units without going through the drawn out 59 week, four stage process.
This will ultimately ensure that badly needed units are delivered at a faster, more sustained pace. We worked hard to influence this Budget process by pushing for greater capital to build social housing but the time for delivery is now. That onus is on the Housing Minister and his Government colleagues.
The measures announced as part of Budget 2019 are not enough alone to solve this emergency but by applying even more pressure over the coming weeks this Government might finally begin to wake up