Claims made by senior government figures during the election campaign that around 40,000 new homes would be built last year deceived the public, the Sinn Fein leader has said.
Mary Lou McDonald accused Taoiseach Micheal Martin and Tanaiste Simon Harris of an “election ploy” when they said the housing target for 2024 would be well exceeded.
Under the Housing for All plan, a target of 33,450 newbuilds was set.
A total of 30,330 were built, a decrease of 6.7% on 2023, according to figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
Mr Martin and Mr Harris made several statements in the final months of 2024 that around 40,000 homes would be built that year.
In the first Leaders’ Questions of the new Dail, Ms McDonald accused Mr Martin of “openly” deceiving the public and giving “false information” that should be corrected.
“Clearly the claim of 40,000 new homes for 2024 was being used as an election ploy, an attempt to convince people that Fianna Fail and Fine Gael had turned the corner on housing.
“But here’s the catch, Taoiseach, none of it was true. The figure of 40,000 new homes was pure fiction, a trick designed to mislead the public, because you couldn’t face an election based on the actual facts of your performance in housing.
“That not only had the rate of house building stagnated on your watch, but it was in fact going backwards.”
She added: “Truth is that your claim of 40,000 new homes for 2024 was a load of bull and well you knew it, but you chose to repeat this claim again and again in an effort to mislead voters.”
Mr Martin said he was “disappointed” with the shortfall of house building and that his statements were based on a “genuine belief that we were heading for the high 30s”.
“There was no attempt to mislead anybody in relation to that.”
He said estimates from Deutsche Bank suggested more than 40,000 houses would be built, EY-Euroconstruct predicted 36,000 in July, and Cairn Homes said close to 40,000.
“I’m very disappointed with the outcome for 2024, we got the figure wrong in terms of what we thought might happen. The target was 33,000, we thought it would be much higher than that, and I regret that.
“All parties in the general election had figures around 50,000 a year, which the ESRI (Economic and Social Research Institute) are suggesting now that was their average… but we need to get to 60,000 by 2030. The issue though is how do we get to that 50,000 per year?
“I think we need a fundamental shift in our approach, not just government, but the Oireachtas more generally, in our attitude to private sector investment in housing.”
CSO figures showed that 21,664 new homes had been built by October.
Ms McDonald said it was “progress of some sort” that Mr Martin had admitted the Government missed its targets, but she added that he had “deliberately and repeatedly” used the 40,000 figure “when you have to have known that that was not going to be delivered”.
Micheal Martin (Maxwell’s/PA)
Mr Martin said that from 2022-24 “we exceeded our targets by close to 5,000 houses”, to jeers from the Sinn Fein benches.
There was a target of 24,600 for 2022 and 29,851 were built, and a target of 29,000 for 2023, with 32,695 built.
He said the housing pitch Sinn Fein made during the election “did not persuade” the public.
“Because you wanted to dramatically disrupt and change the Land Development Agency,” he said. “You wanted to get rid of the Help to Buy scheme, you wanted to get rid of the First Home scheme, which are so beneficial to first-time buyers. So your programme did not persuade.”
Social Democrats acting leader Cian O’Callaghan also raised the 40,000 figure, and asked why the Government “completely and utterly” disregarded “hard data from bodies such as the CSO”.
Mr Martin responded: “What you put forward on your election manifesto programme, again, didn’t persuade people that you had a silver bullet on housing because you didn’t.”
He said that during government formation talks with the Social Democrats, Mr O’Callaghan did not “flesh out” proposals.
“One of your main contribution at that meeting was, and I remember it well, I remember well you looking at the clock, at the watch, nudge, nudge, time to get out, to make the Six O’Clock News for the soundbite.”