The Taoiseach and Tanaiste set out to “mislead the public” over claims that 40,000 new homes would be built last year to “win votes” in the general election, a Sinn Fein TD has said.
David Cullinane said the “tactic” of misleading the public over its housing policies had been a “hallmark” of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael.
He said a new approach was needed for housing, as rents and house prices continued to rise.
Under the Housing For All plan, a target of 33,450 newbuilds was set.
Micheal Martin and Simon Harris made several statements in the final months of 2024 that around 40,000 homes would be built that year (Gareth Fuller/PA)
A total of 30,330 were built, a decrease of 6.7% on 2023, according to figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
Micheal Martin and Simon Harris made several statements in the final months of 2024 that around 40,000 homes would be built that year.
Speaking during Leaders’ Questions on Thursday, Mr Cullinane said: “The truth is that we had the two more senior politicians in the government, the Taoiseach and you Tanaiste, running around the country claiming that you would deliver 40,000 homes last year, a claim that you knew not to be true.
“At the same time, data from the ESRI and the Central Bank was clearly showing that you were on course for failure. But even worse, in October, in the lead-in to the general election, the CSO published the actual completion data for quarter three, which made it clearer than ever that you didn’t have a snowball chance in hell of delivering 40,000 homes last year.
“That report in October, Tanaiste, was damning, and there was nobody in industry, in housing policy, or across the opposition, who believed that anything close to 40,000 homes would be delivered, but you and the Taoiseach chose to ignore and dismiss us in opposition, the CSO, the Central Bank and the ESRI in a deliberate attempt to mislead the public in advance of a general election.”
He accused the Government of attempting to create a narrative that their housing policies were working.
“The problem is that this tactic has been a hallmark of Fine Gael and Fianna Fail in government,” he said.
“(Former ministers) Simon Coveney misled on housing delivery. Eoghan Murphy misled on the number of people becoming homeless. Darragh O’Brien misled on the number of housing completions.
“More stroke politics of the highest order. Tanaiste, it is time to stop misleading the public, and time to accept that your housing plan is clearly not working. We need a completely new approach to housing.”
He added: “Tanaiste, you’re up to your neck in this. The misleading claims of 40,000 new homes last year was hard wired into your election messaging, you knew it was inaccurate. You knew you were misleading. The facts didn’t matter.
“You and Micheal Martin, in my view, set out to mislead the public to win votes.”
Mr Harris said the completion figures last year were disappointing.
He told the Dail that around 7,000 homes were built a year after the financial crash.
“Working together with colleagues in the last government, we’ve gotten this up to a situation of now more than 30,000 per year,” he added.
“And yes, let’s be very clear, deputy, you’re correct the completion figures for last year are disappointing, that is true. But when we look at the last three years together, we have significantly exceeded the housing targets that were set, significantly.”
He said that housing targets were exceeded in 2022 and 2023.
“We do now have good momentum, with over 60,000 commencement notices over the last year, and this will, of course, as night follows day, see that translate to increased completion figures in the time ahead,” the Fine Gael leader said.
“It does appear that there was some displacement in the market as a result of development levy waivers and water connections, where commencements went up at a higher rate than completions have so far.
“But under that scheme that we put in place and those measures that we took to reduce the cost of building a home, we now have a very significant pipeline of homes that have been commenced that must be built under the scheme by the end of 2026.”