Protests by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, that his Government is "socially caring" will carry little weight with a growing number of families that are waiting to be housed by local authorities and homeless agencies
While builders and developers make enormous profits from a record number of house completions and prices continue to rise, the least well-off are losing hope. And a special scheme for affordable housing under the national wage agreement, Sustaining Progress, appears to have stalled.
When the second phase of the national agreement was endorsed during the week, the general secretary of the ICTU, Mr David Begg, recognised that the Government's commitment to provide an extra 10,000 affordable houses was unlikely to be met. The special houses were to have been built on State-provided land during the three years of the agreement but, so far, not a brick has been laid. Elsewhere, completions under the original social and affordable housing scheme have fallen dismally short of targets.
Under that controversial scheme, introduced by the then Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, and upheld by the Supreme Court, builders were obliged to set aside 20 per cent of all new development land for social and affordable housing. But, following pressure from industry, the regulations were changed last year and developers can now pay compensation to local authorities or provide alternative sites elsewhere. As a consequence, the number of social and affordable units being made available is counted in hundreds, rather than in thousands. This shortfall was to have been addressed through a special arrangement with the ICTU, as part of Sustaining Progress. Last summer, the Taoiseach announced that 309 acres of State land would be given over for the construction of affordable housing for lower-paid workers. The sites lacked planning permission, however, and half-way through the national agreement, no homes have been completed.
A record number of 75,000 housing units may be built this year. But less than 6,000 of those will be for local authority tenants. In the meantime, council waiting lists have nudged towards the 50,000 mark. In a parallel development, the Government announced it would provide long-term accommodation for the homeless through public-private partnerships and local authority involvement. But the needs of an estimated 19,000 people will not be assessed until next year and no significant extra funding has been provided.
Having failed to regulate the private housing sector through taxation measures and legislation, the Government also neglected to provide local authorities with the resources necessary to meet their responsibilities. The result is a private market that is outside the reach of many young couples and a shortage of social and affordable housing. If the Cabinet wishes to address a major cause of its recent unpopularity, it will treat the provision of low-cost housing with far greater urgency.