We don’t need a Housing Czar, we need a radical reset of housing policy – Eoin Ó Broin TD

Sinn Féin spokesperson on Housing, Eoin Ó Broin TD, has said: “We don’t need a housing czar, we need a radical reset of housing policy.”

The Dublin Mid-West TD’s comments were made as Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the appointment of a new so-called Housing Czar was imminent.

Teachta Ó Broin said:

“The government has been in office for 10 weeks and so far we have seen no indication that there is any change in housing policy. The Programme for Government and the Minister for Housing’s various pronouncements make crystal clear that this government intends to continue on with the same failed policies as its predecessors.

“House prices, rent and homelessness are all continuing to rise. Social and affordable housing targets are being missed. Vital homeless prevention supports are being restricted and capital funding for social and affordable housing is way behind where we need it to be.

“The idea that the appointment of a Housing Czar will change any of this is absurd. Indeed the tsar could just become a whipping boy for a government and Minister to deflect from their own ongoing failures.

“What we need is a radical change of housing policy as set out in Sinn Féin’s alternative housing plan, A Home of Your Own, and the Housing Commission’s report. This will only happen with a change of government and a change of Minister.”