Ireland's housing crisis is continuing to grow dramatically, while local authority housing was seriously failing to meet demand, the head of housing at Focus Ireland, Mr Justin O'Brien, has said.
It was also revealed that the Irish Sisters of Charity have donated "well in excess of £10 million in buildings, sites, and professional expertise" to Focus Ireland.
Speaking yesterday at the opening of a new housing development in Dublin, Mr O'Brien said: "Even in the bad old days of the 1970s and 1980s, public housing output made up 20-30 per cent of total housing output".
Now, "when the housing crisis is worse than ever before, the combined total of public and voluntary output represents less than 10 per cent of new housing completions each year," he said. This was all the more worrying when last year saw a record number of houses completed, he said.
The new Focus Ireland development at Basin Lane in the city centre provides apartment accommodation for 15 single people who were homeless.
The development was opened by the Minister of State for Housing and Urban Renewal, Mr Bobby Molloy.
In a statement, Focus Ireland pointed out that there was now a shortfall of at least 40,842 houses, with the real figure probably higher.
The organisation was also "highly concerned" by the introduction in the Budget of interest relief on borrowings for investment in properties to be used for private rented accommodation. This did nothing for people on low incomes who were seeking affordable accommodation, it said.
Sister Stanislaus Kennedy, president of Focus Ireland, spoke of the important role donations from the Sisters of Charity has played for the organisation.
"It is not fashionable to praise religious orders or congregations these days," she said, before explaining that the Sisters of Charity had provided the convent site at Basin Lane to provide apartments for homeless people.
They had also given Focus Ireland the convent on Stanhope Street in Dublin which has been used to house over 100 more people, as well as homes for young people on the North Circular Road, Stanhope Street, and have supplied over an acre of land at Harold's Cross for another proposed development.
