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THE MINISTER FOR Housing was unable to provide a figure today for how many homes were built last year.
Eoghan Murphy was answering questions at the launch of the government’s housing report for 2017.
Speaking at the launch, Murphy said that he was unable to give a definitive figure of how many new homes were actually built last year.
“I can’t give it right now but we are doing work to get that figure,” Murphy said when questioned.
“What we don’t yet have is a way of calculating every single home built in the country across social and the private side,” he said.
While the minister could not give the number of homes built, he said the government did have figures for the number of new build commencements (work begun on a building site, but not necessarily completed), the number of planning permissions granted and the number of social housing units built.
He said all of these point towards housing builds exceeding government targets.
The reason for the department not being able to say how many new houses are built is that it has stopped referring to houses with new ESB electricity connections as “completions”.
In the past, a housing completion would be listed as a housing unit that received a new ESB connection. However, the department came in for strong criticism last year for using this measure.
This was because new ESB connections also applied to houses that had been vacant for more than two years, and so all the houses called “completions” were not in fact new housing stock.
This resulted in the Housing Department having a different figure than the CSO and others when it came to new homes.
For example, an A&L Goodbody report published earlier this month said that 8,659 new homes were built during the first 11 months of 2017, which was significantly lower than department figures.
Murphy acknowledged this fact today, and said he had put an end to using this measure as it wasn’t accurate.
“When I came into office ESB connections were being termed as completions and I stopped doing that because they’re not strictly completions because they also include in them homes that have been vacant for more than two years,” he said.
So they are existing homes that weren’t being built, they’ve just been lying vacant and have been put back into use.
The minister said that work was under way to give a true figure for the number of homes actually built last year and in the second half of 2016.
He said that this work should be completed “in the second quarter of this year” and that from then on, an accurate figure for the number of homes actually built will be given quarterly.
According to department figures, over 17,500 new homes commenced construction last year – a 33% rise on 2016. There were over 9,500 “registrations” of larger developments – a big jump on previous years.
There were also over 19,000 homes connected to the ESB network, and over 18,000 planning permissions granted.
However, as the minister said, the number of actual new homes is unavailable.
Social housing needs
The department was able to say how many social houses were built last year.
In total, 2,245 new social homes were built last year, 189 below the target of 2,434.
These homes are a combination of builds by local authorities, Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) and Part V builds (meaning 10% of significant private housing developments).
In total, 1,058 of the homes were built by local authorities, 799 came from AHBs and 388 were delivered through Part V.
Types of houses built included traditional construction, turnkeys, rapid build delivery and regeneration of dilapidated stock. No breakdown was available for how many units of each type were delivered.
The figure marks a huge jump (c. 1,400) on the number of social housing completions at the end of September, as laid out in the Rebuilding Ireland Q3 status report.
It has been met with some scepticism by housing experts.
Gerard Brady – head of tax and fiscal policy at Ibec – pointed out that it would be the biggest local authority social housing build since the economic crash.
Speaking today, Murphy explained the jump:
“When we announced the Q3 report… I signalled at the time that we were expecting significant increase in delivery in the fourth quarter. We could see what was on site, at the time I think it was 3,700 on site across 190 sites across the country,” he said.
“And we were driving a particular piece of work to get as many houses completed before the end of the year to get new families into homes before Christmas.
A significant number of homes were completed in that fourth quarter and we’ll publish those figures later in the year, you’ll be able to see that piece of work done.
Housing needs met
Overall, the department said that it exceeded its social housing delivery targets by over 20%, according to the figures published today.
The department said that 25,892 households had their social housing needs met last year.
This is 23% above the target of 21,050 that is set out in Rebuilding Ireland – the government’s Housing Action Plan.
The vast majority (c. 76%) of the households were delivered through the private rental market – for example through the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP), long-term leasing, and the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS).
Sinn Féin housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin criticised the government over the latest figures, saying that targets were too low.
“The real issue is that the Government current targets are also too low,” he said.
At a time when we need more than 10,000 real social housing units every year to meet existing housing demand the Government is falling 40% short. This is simply not good enough.
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Why don’t they just make up the figures like the Gardai
@Stephen Devlin: You’re right – scratch that Eoghan, in fact 4,146,743 homes were built. Keep the recovery (aka lies) going.
@Stephen Devlin: indeed their figures have been ridicules by nama winelake & Mel Reynolds. Check them out on Twitter.
@Stephen Devlin: Eoghan Murphy is the biggest waffler and buLL*****r in that government and he is allowed to get away with it.
@Stephen Devlin:
They do.
@Irish Political GIF: Going by page 2 the vast majority of “social housing” is provided by private rented accommodation,which they’re supposed to be moving away from!
As for construction I looked up Department own figures re commencements last year and it stated total commencements came to 5911 in 2017,4844 in 2016&3580 in 2015….so how many completed constructions?
@Nuala Mc Namara: assuming 85% of commencements proceed to completion that’s an average of 4,061 per year. Probably as good back of the envelope calculation. The other neat approach is to take whatever figure the government spin department provide and divide it by four. Works a treat.
@Sean: As I said above ,data from Dept put commencements last year at 5911 so where does the 17,500 commencements for last year stated today come from?
Also in that Rebuilding Ireland pic above it shows re ‘Social Housing Delivery’ that 76% is from private rented accommodation!!
Social houses directly built by LA’S in 2015 were 75& in 2016 were 247.
We’re told they have the money to build social housing so why the low number of social houses directly built by LA’S?
Meanwhile Leo is congratulating the housing minister on Twitter. I mean the reality is bad enough out there without having our government spin the reality to us in the hope we will vote for their incompetence again
@Irish Political GIF:
Unfortunately the country is full of blue shirt sleep walkers who have accepted incompetence as the norm. The party comes first. Like a social drift that leads to delusional expectations and ultimately a disconnection from the very reality that they had originally believed they could somehow positively influence. In the end they simply goof out like a bunch of stoners and nothing is achieved.
@Irish Political GIF: At least €5 million spent well on propaganda..
@Irish Political GIF: If we voted to oust Leo & Co. in any future elections – would that be ruled as ‘homophobic voting practices’???
Hoteliers are the biggest donors to the FFG parties. Some FFG TDs even own hotels.
The budget for homelessness went from €38 million to €49 million in a single year.
Why would they build social housing when they can make a profit out of homelessness?
Not unlike the for-profit prison system in the USA
@Franklin Roosevelt: Exactly. It’s a way of using Taxpayers money to fund Private Sector, like the HAP scheme does also.
The minister for housing today said it was 27k. A few weeks ago, the housing dept said it was 17k. An independent body said it was 7k. Whatever figure the gov makes up, it’s a nice handy way to hide the 10s and 100s of millions the gov have wasted and squandered away foolishly on other things. They spend 24 million paying hotels in Dublin to accommodate homeless people over a 6 month period last year. And homeless figures are up again. It all paints a pretty incompetent, pathetic and clueless performance by the gov.
@Adrian: I’m reminded of the public been told that vast majority had paid IW charges but Government provided refunds of €173m out of expected total expected revenue of over €338m(5bills) ie: 51% !
There should be full transparency re all housing stats including completed social housing stats in a timely manner plus Ireland needs to comply with all ETHOS light Categories of homeless not just 3/7.The housing and homelessness Emergencies need proper and full assessment otherwise not enough URGENT action will be taken.This badly needed not just for public information but more importantly to give meaning to ‘a Republic of Opportunity’ for the people, families and children needing housing.
The gov knows fairly accurately how many houses are in the country. The charity organizations have accurate homeless figures. All construction companies would know exactly how many houses they built last year. Just shows how shambolic our gov is when the politicians are probably advised to guess the number, and guess high!
@Adrian: The charities have repeatedly said that they don’t have accurate figures as they claim the hidden homeless living with family or friends aren’t included.
@Kal Ipers: Yes, you’re dead right. I was excluding the hidden homeless from the figures, which the gov refuse to recognise because they can’t cope with the few thousand they do recognise. Hidden homeless was estimated to be somewhere around 70k, and this incompetent gov are happy to give themselves pay rises and live in comfort in multiple, sometimes tax exempt houses, while forcing the minions to live on couches or move back in with the elderly parents. This is disgraceful behaviour from whats a shambolic and truly incompetent gov.
@Kal Ipers: Once you get a roof over your head with either family or friends, you no longer count as homeless.
@Dave Doyle: Which I completely agree with. If you aren’t homeless why would you be counted. You know it has been discovered that one of the people “staying” in the Gresham is actually living with her boyfriend? She was on the news complaining and people just looked up her Instagram account and it showed her living with him.
They aren’t hidden homeless they aren’t homeless. It is absolutely bizzar to me to try and count somebody who is living back with their parents as homeless. When I was growing up it was extremely common for people to stay at home till they could afford to rent or buy but nobody would have ever called them homeless.
@Kal Ipers: The whole homeless situation is screwed up. And deliberately so. If you’re living with your folks you’re not exactly homeless. But if you’re living with your folks because you lost your home for whatever reason, or a landlord evicted you, you are homeless, but you don’t count on the list as homeless.
If you live in a shelter, be it charity run or a hotel, you are homeless. If you live on the streets, the so called “rough sleepers” you are homeless.
@Dave Doyle: You aren’t homeless if you are living with your parents. It is that simple. If you can’t afford rent in your preffered location you aren’t homeless.
If you are living with your boyfriend and claiming to be homeless to get your own place you aren’t homeless either.
@Kal Ipers: What do people when houses and rent is unaffordable? Homes and rent are out of the reach of those without well paying jobs.
@Dave Doyle: you move to where you can afford the rent and don’t expect the government to house you close to where you grew up. If you work a minimum pay job don’t expect to live in the most expensive parts of the country. People buying their homes have to buy within their budget why should others be given massive discounts and accommodated?
@Kal Ipers: Kal, with respect, that’s codswallop. Rents are high all over the country. Houses nearly the same. How do you expect those on minimum wage to leave their jobs and just walk into a mortgage for a house in some other place in the country?
Even if a millions houses were built today, with another million extra people expected in next few years – there would still not be enough houses until the whole country is turned into a concrete jungle – with no building up just urban sprawl and traffic jams and more roads and more traffic jams and more roads
@Damien O’Brien: A fair comment Damien – especially as automation and robots are replacing workers – there will be less and less need for workers.
@Damien O’Brien: Its only common sense – you would think we were the size of the USA – reality we are a small island with uncontrolled migration into the country and people wonder why there is a housing and health crisis. Of course all the main political parties preach the dogma of more and more immigration. Its lunacy.
@Damien O’Brien: It’s neoliberalism that’s destroying society. Migrants= cheap labour. Neoliberalism believes in light touch regulation across all sectors of business including banks. How you profit makes not a bit of difference, as long as you profit. Corporate welfare is the primary consideration for neoliberals.
@Damien O’Brien:
I think David McWilliams has mentioned the effects of letting in uncontrolled numbers of migrants on the housing system.
@Damien O’Brien: hey…I’m left, and I agree with you.
No way to calculate? Try counting! Or better still just admit that you have no interest in trying to regulate the market by providing new homes, specially social homes, and that you are happy to let this situation be artificially skewed with your connivance with Vulture funds. Incompetent and crooked in equal measure!
@David Knight: What do you count? The article explains why it isn’t easy and metrics used in the past weren’t accurate. They also have given the count for social housing which is being built.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:
There’s more spoofers in Fine Gael than PokemonGO!
And I’m not wrong.
Lies, lies and more lies.
Referendum needed to fix housing problem in the long term. Else just engineered transfer of taxpayer wealth to select private landlords by political parties … unjust enrichment.
https://www.change.org/p/referendum-on-family-home-special-status-in-ireland
@Neuville-Kepler62F: Nonsense. It won’t happen and the vast majority wouldn’t accept this
I don’t think the housing list can ever fall. No matter how many homes come on stream they will not equate to the amount of people entering the country from the Indian sub continent, the Middle East and Africa. This added to the usual flow from within the Eu makes the target not achievable.
@KerryBlueMike: i know everytime i see a homeless person they are from them countries
Where’s the social housing?
@Kevin Slater: They’ve contracted a mystic to conjure up the figures.
@Kevin Slater: It is all about but an entire new estate was bought in Beaumont Dublin for social housing for example. Any housing estate built last year would have 10% social housing.
You can tell me I’m a doctor
Minister will never know because he doesn’t care.
The way some people are talking ,you would think some people claiming they are homeless are gameing the system
@Julie Burn: With Carillion gone bust, and employing many Irish contractors in Ireland, if they don’t get paid they will also go bust.
So those working for them are a couple of pay cheques away from not being able to afford their mortgage or rent.
Will you accuse them of gaming the system if they look for social housing to put a roof over their heads?
@Dave Doyle: NO
@Dave Doyle: How would they be gaming the system?
@KerryBlueMike: Julie, like many others here pigeonhole all homeless are being responsible for being homeless.
Just look at the comments on last night’s article about a doctor who now finds herself homeless.
Just wondering, what does a new esb connection mean?
@KerryBlueMike: it means the House was connected to the electricity grid. Handy for boiling kettles and the like.
have your say