Government not serious about tackling housing and homelessness as Minister finally provides clarity on social and affordable funding – Eoin Ó Broin TD
4 April 2025
Sinn Féin spokesperson on Housing, Eoin Ó Broin TD, has said that the government is just not serious about tackling the housing and homeless crisis.
The Dublin Mid-West TD’s comments were made as the Minister for Housing finally provided clarity on social and affordable housing funding for 2025.
Teachta Ó Broin said:
“Eight weeks and multiple parliamentary questions after the Minister for Housing James Browne announced extra funding for social and affordable housing, the Minister has finally provided clarity on his department’s capital allocation for social and affordable housing in 2025.
“The response to my parliamentary question received today indicates that €715m of additional capital funding for new-build social and affordable homes and social housing acquisitions will be allocated in addition to the €2.27bn allocated by Budget 2025. This brings the total capital spending for social and affordable housing this year to €2.99bn.
“However, the total capital expenditure on social and affordable housing by the Department of Housing in 2024 was €2.818bn. This means that for 2025 the actual real increase on 2024 levels is just €175m.
“While any increase of funding for social and affordable housing is welcome, the reality is that this very meagre increase is too little to meet either the demand for social and affordable housing or the government’s own modest targets for 2025.
“When the final social and affordable output figures for 2025 are published, we will see that once again the combined new-build social and affordable housing targets were missed last year.
“For 2025, the Government housing plan aims to increase new-build social housing output by an additional 700 on the 2024 target.
“It will not be possible to deliver the increased number of social and affordable homes to meet the 2025 targets with an extra €175m. This means that either the government will miss their targets again or will require a further supplementary estimate this year.
“The Department of Housing has already delayed approval for thousands of new social and affordable homes by many months. This will impact the supply of social and affordable housing this year and next. Providing inadequate funding for 2025 will further exacerbate the problem.
“The real problem, of course, is that the government’s targets for social and affordable homes are far too low. We need an average of 25,000 new-build social and affordable homes a year for the next five years to meet current need.
“This would require a doubling of total expenditure on social and affordable housing. €175m of extra capital funding for social and affordable housing for 2025 shows the government is just not serious about tackling the housing and homeless crises.”
The response to Deputy Ó Broin’s Parliamentary Question can be read here.
