Ireland’s housing shortage a 'drag' on investment, Tánaiste

By Michelle Devane, PA

Ireland’s housing shortage is a “drag” on investment, the Tánaiste has said.

Leo Varadkar said it was “definitely a real concern” but that it was not causing investment to go down.

The Enterprise Minister added that it is not possible to quantify exactly how it was affecting investment.

“When I’m meeting the senior executives and senior board members of big companies that are thinking about investing in Ireland, they do ask about our infrastructure: Is there enough housing for the workers that they might want to come in? Is there going to be enough electricity, is there going to be enough water and wastewater?

“So, infrastructure is definitely a barrier to further growth in Ireland.

“What they all tell me as well is that these aren’t necessarily problems unique to Ireland, they find these issues in California as well.”

He added: “I think the housing shortage is a drag on investment. It’s not really possible to quantify to what extent that’s the case. “

“Last year, was the best year ever for FDI, this year is gonna be pretty good as well. And you’ll see those numbers next week so it’s not to the extent that it’s causing us to lose investment but it is definitely a real concern. ”

The Tánaiste, who is set to become Taoiseach on December 17th as planned under the Programme for Government, said the Government will leave no stone unturned in its bid to increase supply of housing.

“We’re going to do everything possible. We will leave no stone unturned. There’s no policy lever un-pulled to make sure that we exceed our target for next year in terms of new home building,” he said.

He was speaking at a press conference in Government Buildings for the launch of the Government’s new enterprise policy that 30,000 homes a year need to be built to “stand still”.

“To make real progress we’re gonna need to do better than that,” Mr Varadkar added.