Labour pledge to deliver 1m homes over 10 years was an ‘underestimate’

By Cillian Sherlock, PA

A Labour ambition to deliver a million homes over 10 years was an “underestimate”, its party leader has said.

As President Michael D Higgins signed off on a dissolution of the Dáil to formally start the general election campaign, Labour set out its plan to “reform the housing system in Ireland”.

Leader Ivana Bacik held a press conference in Dublin city, where she told reporters that the party believed that housing is “the single biggest issue” in the campaign.

She said Labour had an ambitious and credible plan to “transform the housing system”, adding that a record number of children in homelessness is a “shocking legacy of the Government”.

Ms Bacik said house prices were up 10 per cent in the last year and the rents were at record highs.

She said there was an existing housing shortfall of 250,000 homes and an expected annual demand reaching up to 62,000 per year by 2050.

Ms Bacik said that its policy would strengthen renters’ rights by giving more power to the RTB and implementing a rent register alongside a three-year rent freeze, tackle vacancy and dereliction, and end the “scandal of homelessness”.

She also said the party would use €6 billion from the Apple back taxes to fund a State construction company.

The party would also phase out private sector subsidies, increase vacant property taxes and compulsory purchase empty homes.

The plan would see the party spending an additional €5.1 billion across 2026-2030 to deliver at least 50,000 homes per year.

Earlier this week, the Government agreed to ramp up its housing delivery, a target of 50,500 homes a year on average between 2025 and 2030.

The new figures start from 41,000 homes next year and rise incrementally to 60,000 by the end of the period.

However, the Government did not provide a breakdown of how many of 303,000 homes will be affordable and social homes.

Ms Bacik said her party will build an average of 50,000 new homes over 2025-2029, scaling delivery from 2027 to more than 60,000 per year.

Labour’s plan promises an average of 6,500 affordable homes a year with 30,000 over five years – rising to 11,000 by 2030.

It also promises 5,000 cost-rental homes, scaling to 6,000 – for a total of 25,000 over five years.

It also includes 67,000 social homes over five years, with 18,000 in 2030 alone.

Last year, Ms Bacik said Labour in government would deliver one million homes over the following decade.

She later clarified that this would include some homes already occupied, with the overall target divided into an average of 50,000 new-builds and 50,000 “deep retrofits” every year.

The targets in the new housing document outstretch this previous pledge.

Ms Bacik doubled down on the million homes figure and said: “If anything, we underestimated the scale of the need.”

Elsewhere, it includes a targeted “save to buy” scheme alongside a “rent to buy” plan.

In 2020, Labour previously described a Fianna Fáil plan offering first-time buyers a new special savings incentive allowance to help them save for a deposit as “disastrous”.

Asked if this was a U-turn, Ms Bacik said it would be operated on a more effective basis and added: “We now have the cost-rental model. You can start there and it makes it a much more reasonable scheme.”

From the now vacated Government benches, Fine Gael leader Simon Harris defended the coalition Government’s record.

The Taoiseach said: “Our coalition is delivering new homes across our country and it has built up the finances and the plans to deliver the homes that our people need in the future.”

Meanwhile, Tánaiste and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said: “We demonstrated the capacity to lead the country through very difficult times.”