THE target of building 41,000 new homes this year is “not realistic”, Housing Minister James Browne has admitted.
He conceded meeting the aim would be “extremely challenging” — with around 34,000 gaffs now expected.
But Minister Browne insisted he was committed to enacting a “step change” in the Housing Department and will clear “the dead wood out of the way so that homes can get delivered”.
Quizzed on this year’s target, he told Newstalk: “I think the challenge we have this year is we’re coming off a much lower base from last year than was expected.
“We had hoped for much higher figures last year. I think, looking at all of the different predictions, which are fairly consistent, I think 41,000 is not realistic for this year.”
He added: “My position as Minister is to maximise supply, maximise the delivery of new homes and, irrespective of what the housing numbers will be this year, I’m making a step change so we can get that housing supply increased.
“Because we need to get from 30,000 onto 50,000, onto 60,000 houses — 40,000 houses is nowhere near enough.”
The Central Bank has also projected the Government will miss its targets and revised its prediction down to 32,500 new builds for 2025.
Meanwhile, total investment of €122billion is needed by 2030 if Ireland is to meet its housing targets, Deloitte says.
This includes €16.4billion this year, rising to €24.1billion by 2030 to hit 60,000 gaffs a year.
Earlier this week, it emerged that the Government is branching out in its bid to solve the housing crisis with a new “Wood First” plan that will see timber become the main building material used to build our homes, schools and libraries.
Minister Martin Heydon brought forward the first report from the Government’s Timber in Construction Steering Group which calls on the State to use wood more when building homes.
Forestry Minister Micheal Healy-Rae has worked with the steering group on the report which notes that Ireland has excellent forest resources that are being underused in our construction sector.
The steering group believes that our forests have the capacity to supply the timber needed to build houses while also helping reach climate targets by reducing the need for steel and concrete.
‘INDIGENOUS RESOURCE’
A new “Wood first” procurement policy will be launched on the back of the report which will see State bodies ensure that timber is the “material of choice” in the construction of public buildings including schools, libraries and housing.
Forestry Minister Micheal Healy-Rae told the Irish Sun: “If we are trying to build twenty or thirty or sixty thousand houses – every one of those will need a roof and the most environmentally friendly way you can build a roof is not with steel or anything else – it is wood.
“Again with all the partitions in houses you have people who will want to use steel fixing or concrete but at the end of the day I am encouraging people to use wood instead.
“Timber framed houses made in a factory were very big during the Boomy Boom and people will tell you to use others instead like concrete but I think we should be promoting timber.
“We can grow it ourselves. It’s our own indigenous resource. It is renewable.
“You plant it and it grows here, you cut it down and use it and you plant it again and it creates work locally.”
