In a time of a severe housing crisis, Ireland is looking for any way to lift the market and help people into homes at a price they can afford.
Recently, however, there was a turn of events that no one saw coming. The government has been accused of buying private sector homes rather than building social housing.
In an attempt to relieve the country from the housing shortage, the strategy was all wrong. By building social housing, the nation would have seen an incredible increase in the supply of available housing.
Something that is desperately needed.
Darragh O’Brien, a spokesperson on housing, is responsible for the gathering of the statistics in which proved that for at least the last two consecutive governments there has been nearly 1 billion euro of taxpayers money spent on the purchasing of private sector homes.
The data gathered, dating back to 2011!
These findings provide good reasoning to accuse Fine Gael of being overall opposed to the building of social housing.
An opposition that many wouldn’t agree with due to the high numbers of people on the waiting list for housing.
Through the freedom of information policy, there was an ability to gain all of the government’s data and therefore reveal the steep amount of taxpayers money used in the purchasing of 5,559 homes.
To worsen the government’s position it was revealed that these actions contributed to the growth in housing costs. By doing so, prospective buyers were priced out of the market and left to stop looking for homes at all.
In many cases, Darragh O’Brien is reported as saying that “Not only has Fine Gael driven up house prices generally, but in many instances, it would have been significantly cheaper for the state to build new social homes. “
Leaving many citizens even further puzzled and confused than before.
This wrong strategy used by Gael is also faulted for the fact that at the time of this happening there were over 3,000 hectares of zoned and serviced land that was available for use.
To further the severity of neglecting this, the use to build social housing on this land would have been much more inexpensive for the government in the long run.
It is now concluded by many around the nation that the government simply has an unknown reason for not wanting to construct new homes and increase the supply that would overall reduce the number of people on the housing waiting list.
The government is betting on a system in which the housing market will “sort itself out”. This kind of nieve waiting is exactly what will cause it to never improve.
O’Brien is also reported as saying “If we get our act together on social housing we could do 5,000 social houses a year”.
Since this statement by O’Brien, claims have been made by the government to suggest they are planning to begin seriously building and increasing the number of social houses throughout Ireland.
There have been comments published reporting on the government’s support of rebuilding Ireland, a strategy to increase social housing over a 5-year plan.
All new developments leading to the creation of social housing show that the government is back on track, despite the news recently released that may be causing some to question the truthfulness of the government’s statements.
