LAST UPDATE | 11 Sep

A NUMBER OF changes need to be made to the government’s Housing for All plan, according to Taoiseach Simon Harris. 

Speaking on the first day of the Fine Gael party think-in in Tullamore today, he said the policy, which was launched in 2021, “is a really good starting point”. 

However, he stated that when the government publishes its revised housing targets shortly, it will be accompanied by an “updated” Housing for All document. 

While the Taoiseach would not be drawn on the date of the next election, he said his party will set out Fine Gael’s housing ambition in its manifesto.  

He told reporters that unlike Sinn Féin, his party is committed to retaining the Help-to-Buy Scheme and the First Home Scheme ”for the lifetime of the next government”.

Prior to that, the government will agree the updated version of Housing for All plan, he said. 

Revising and publishing the new housing targets is “really important” in terms of providing certainty to the construction sector, he added. 

When asked if the policy needs to change majorly, Harris said the new plan will address issues around zoning.

“We’ve already started the preparatory work in telling our local authorities to be ready to play their part in making sure 50,000 new homes can be delivered,” he said. 

He added that including student accommodation into the housing targets also needs to happen.

“I think there’s very real issues around why student accommodation isn’t currently included in housing targets. We need to. I think there’s a consensus around that, because for every student accommodation bed you build, you’re actually freeing up maybe a maybe a three-bed semi for a family to rent or buy. So there’s a knock on effect there,” he added.

In terms of the performance of the local authorities when it comes to house delivery, he said:

“There’s not a consistent enough approach across our local authorities to certain things, including, including specs for homes that they build and the likes. So I do think there’s a way we could adopt a more consistent approach to standards and the likes that could actually help speed up the delivery of homes and potentially reduce the costs,” Harris said. 

First Home Scheme expansion

His comments comes as government signed off on an additional €100 million spend on the government’s First Home Scheme. 

Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien brought a memo to Cabinet yesterday seeking approval for the expansion of the scheme. 

The First Home Scheme provides first-time buyers an option for the government and certain banks to pay up to 30% of the cost of a new home in return for a stake in the property. 

The existing fund for the scheme encompassed €480 million.

Around 11,000 buyers have registered for the scheme since it launched in July 2022 and over 5,400 applicants have been approved for the funding – though in a quarterly update published in July, the company behind the scheme said that just 1,914 people have been able to buy home using the incentive to date.

The same update detailed that the average level of support received by each buyer was €65,803. 

Sinn Féin has criticised the First Home Scheme, saying that it is not helpful to home buyers in the long-run and that the party would abolish it if elected to Government.

Sinn Féin’s housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin said in a recent debate that the First Home scheme “piles additional high risk debt onto buyers”.

With reporting by Christina Finn