Sir, – Your editorial “Cutting out the developer – The Irish Times view on building social housing” (December 21st) encapsulates much of what some of us have been trying to do for many years. However, it would be far more powerful if it was backed up by acknowledging the damaging role of the Department of Housing and Local Government. Despite repeated announcements of new funding and new schemes, amplified by repeated coverage in The Irish Times, the truth is that the department responsible for housing and local government has emasculated the latter and made the delivery of the former harder and harder.
I do not care who builds the necessary new homes. I care that they are built. To do so, and indeed to rejuvenate the far too many empty homes, we need the bureaucratic nonsense imposed by government departments to be reduced, we need local government to be freed to do the job that it is more than capable of doing.
In short, we need to be allowed to do our job. Much of what The Irish Times has called on city and county councils to do over the years could be done in a reformed system of same.
Without reform, the Department of Housing and Local Government will continue to hold the sector back. Hopefully 2023 will see the media in general begin to understand the realities of local government and join us in striving to create a system that can serve the Irish people well and encourage many more people to seek election in the local elections of 2024. – Yours, etc,
Cllr DERMOT LACEY,
(Labour),
Donnybrook,
Dublin 4.
Sir, – Your editorial notes that a housing association is cutting out the developer and instead directly contacting a builder.
While the Housing Association is to be congratulated for their development in these difficult times for housing delivery, there is nothing novel in this process of procurement.
From my nearly 40 years of involvement in the delivery of social housing in the State, many housing associations, for decades, have been procuring design services, planning permission, finance and building contractors to complete high-quality housing developments. – Yours, etc,
KIERAN GALLAGHER,
Dublin 6.