Message from the Editor: a morass of Government’s own making on housing

A shadow has hung over this Government since its formation. The inaccurate projections for housing completions in 2024 promoted by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael during the general election were a blow to the credibility of the targets set for the next five years in their programme for government. Further blows came with bleak reports on the numbers of apartments being built and social housing being units completed. Within weeks, the Government’s projections had lost nearly all credibility.

While there was some suggestion of additional measures such as tax incentives for developers and the reform of rent control zones, little in the way of concrete proposals had emerged. One idea that was reportedly being progressed was the establishment of a Housing Activation Office. The new body would be empowered to break logjams in the planning and development process, enforcing better collaboration between different agencies and government entities.

The head of the new office, the so-called housing “tsar”, would be empowered to do whatever was necessary to kick-start housing. Sceptics wondered exactly where ultimate responsibility would reside.

If the Government wanted to lay those concerns to rest by setting up the new body speedily and efficiently, then it has failed quite spectacularly. This week’s public row between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael over the former’s proposal to appoint the current head of the National Asset Management Agency, Brendan McDonagh, to the post, where he would retain his current salary of €430,000, has ensured that.

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In the face of mounting Opposition criticism, Fine Gael baulked at the appointment and McDonagh subsequently withdrew himself from consideration for the post.

The entire sorry episode sums up the morass of its own making in which the Government now finds itself on housing. The numbers are getting grimmer by the month. And the unseemly bickering between the parties suggests an absence of the vision and sense of purpose which, even if it fails to fix the crisis, might at least ameliorate it over the course of its term. A good start would be to return anew to the recommendations of the Housing Commission, which were dismissed without much explanation by the last government, most of whose members, of course, are also serving in this one.

Ruadhán Mac Cormaic

Editor

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