TAOISEACH Micheal Martin has been accused of “spoofing” about the number of homes that were built in Ireland last year.
It follows fury over Central Bank predictions that the Government is set to miss its housing targets for the next three years in a row while house prices continue to spike.
The economic report claimed this was due to a number of reasons, including delayed planning permissions and utility connections, and a shortage of zoned land.
The report predicted Ireland would build 35,000 homes this year, followed by 40,000 next year, and 44,000 in 2027 .
This is far off the Government’s targets of 41,000 for this year, 43,000 next year and 48,000 in 2027.
Taoiseach Micheal Martin today confirmed that 41,000 remains the target for this year despite the ongoing challenges.
Last year, Ireland built just over 30,000 homes despite repeated claims from Micheal Martin in the run up to the general election that close to 40,000 homes would be built in 2024.
Weeks before the election, a report from the Department of Finance warned Minister Jack Chambers that this 40,000 target would not be hit last year.
The Taoiseach was today accused of “spoofing” about the number of homes built in Ireland last year as he came underfire over his failed pre-election promises.
Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald told the Dail: “The Taoiseach is spoofing.
“The Department of Finance analysed all the available data which the Taoiseach cited and more.
“The Department told the Taoiseach’s colleague, Deputy Chambers, the Minister, that 40,000 homes in 2024 was not happening.
“We have the documentation to reflect that fact. The Minister knew, the Government knew – I assume the Taoiseach knew – yet he spun the fiction again and again of 40,000 houses in 2024 to, as it were, take the bad look off things. Shame on you for doing that and for misleading people.”
The Sinn Fein leader also hit out at the Taoiseach for “sniggering” at the housing issue during his visit to the White House when President Trump claimed that the shortage of housing was a good problem to have.
The Taoiseach denied that he tried to mislead the public on housing and claimed there were multiple different predictions on housing in Ireland.
He slammed Sinn Fein’s claim that he sniggered at the housing issue in the White House as a “pathetic” attempt to play politics with the problem as he clearly said in the Oval Office that housing was Ireland’s number one issue.
‘NOT AN EXACT SCIENCE’
Earlier, Tanaiste Simon Harris said projections on housing completions are “not an exact science”.
Harris said: “There have been some years where the Central Bank have underestimated the number of homes that we delivered, in some years – I’m sure – where they’ve gotten it quite right, and perhaps other years where they’ve overestimated it.
“And the focus here has to be on the fact that we need 300,000 more homes over the next five years.”
It comes the latest figures from the CSO show that housing prices rose by 8 per cent in the 12 months to the end of January.
The median price of a house in Ireland nationally at the end of January was €360,000.
