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Up to 25,000 new homes will be built by the end of next year, Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin has said.<\/p>\nUp to 25,000 new homes will be built by the end of next year, Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin has said.<\/p>\n
Mr Martin said the Government\u2019s target is a \u201cchallenging\u201d figure.<\/p>\n
Around 12,750 will be social homes and of those 9,750 will be direct builds by approved housing bodies or local authorities.<\/p>\n
The Covid-19 pandemic has had a big impact on this year\u2019s target, with around 18,000 new homes expected to be completed by the end of the year.<\/p>\n
Mr Martin said that while the number of homeless people has dropped since March, the Government is giving \u201ceverything we can\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have pledged around \u20ac3.3 billion for housing in 2021. The key issue will be capacity to deliver to get the houses built,\u201d Mr Martin said.<\/p>\n
\u201cCovid has impacted in the first wave because the first lockdown, construction shut down and that has impacted housebuilding.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Martin said the Land and Development Agency Bill was approved by Cabinet, which now puts the LDA on a statutory footing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a significant milestone. It is another weapon in our armory,\u201d Mr Martin added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Housing Affordability plan also came through Cabinet, so the minister has been very active.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are very challenging issues in the context of both pieces of legislation. They will come into the D\u00e1il and the Oireachtas in the new session.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom July, we talked about voids and through the July Stimulus, we took \u20ac40 or \u20ac50 million to get 2,500 voids, houses in disrepair under local authorities and get them done and we did,\u201d Mr Martin continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy the end of the year, the majority of those will be done. There\u2019s an energy come to this and every morning when I wake up I say \u2018what are my key priorities? Housing, health, climate change in addition to Covid and the education.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Taoiseach said the challenge will be post-Covid-19, which he said could see demographics and demand rise.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will be an impact in the lifetime of this Government,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) said that 33,000 units every year are needed to keep up with the population.<\/p>\n
Mr Martin added: \u201cMy worry is about getting to the 33,000 figure which the ESRI has said is necessary to put a dent into the waiting times.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not happy yet that we are where we should be and I think we\u2019ll keep driving it on.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn homelessness, I think numbers are coming down but we want to keep that down.<\/p>\n
\u201cSix thousand people exited homelessness last year, so people are exiting. So we want to concentrate on getting more people out of homelessness.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s realizable. I think homelessness is now at its lowest rate since 2016.\u201d<\/p>\n