Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
HOUSING MINISTER DARRAGH O’Brien has today said one of the core recommendations from the Housing Commission report is “problematic”.
Yesterday, a major report on the Irish housing system from the Housing Commission was leaked ahead of its publication by Government.
Among its 83 recommendations, seen by The Journal, is for a new ‘Housing Delivery Oversight Executive’ to be established by Government with power to address functional failures and implement reforms.
It said it believes this is “essential” to address the systemic reset needed.
It recommended that this body be legislatively empowered to remove obstacles to housing delivery and would drive coordination across legislation, regulation, and administrative practices.
Speaking to reporters in Dublin this morning, the Housing Minister said establishing such a body would be “problematic” and that it was not a recommendation that he agrees with “on first examination”.
“What I don’t want to do is add additional layers on housing delivery,” the Minister said.
“That in itself would be problematic. It would be another layer, it’s not one that on first examination that it would agree with but there’s a lot of other good things in there.”
The Minister said the full report will be published this afternoon.
When asked when he planned to publish it, he said he wanted to have time to fully consider the recommendations.
He said he hasn’t done that yet but feels that after it was leaked the public should see the full thing.
“I’ve read through the report, I’ve read through the recommendations, but in fairness, it requires more than two weeks to go through the implications [of it],” the Minister said.
O’Brien said “many of those recommendations are either done or are being done. Some of them from first glance we probably won’t do as well, but I want to give it due consideration.”
Rent Pressure Zones
Elsewhere, O’Brien has defended the impact of Rent Pressure Zones (RPZs) following a recommendation from the Housing Commission to scrap the system.
Among the Commission’s recommendations is a call to remove the existing RPZ system and replace it with that pegs rent increases to a reference rent for similar properties in the area.
The report, which was commissioned by the Government, found that the available evidence indicates that the impact of RPZs has been “mixed”.
The Commission recommended that the reference rent under the proposed new system should be reviewed at regular intervals with rent not rising more than a certain percentage point above the reference rent over a specific period.
When asked by The Journal if this recommendation to replace the RPZ system will be acted on, the Minister said the RPZ system has “been an important protection for renters”.
The sunset clause for RPZs was the end of this year, but last week the Minister extended them to the end of 2025.
“The reason for that is we’re actually concluding our rental market review at the moment…and that work is advancing so I just wanted to give some certainty into next year that we wouldn’t have a cliff edge on them,” O’Brien said today.
He said he read the recommendation on replacing the RPZ system and said it is “something amongst many other things as part of the rental market review that requires consideration.”
“We will certainly consider that as part of the review. But to be fair, I think we need time to to assess the recommendations in more detail.”
They commission a report and then ignore their recomendations
@qffaffaf affrafrfraf: didn’t they do the same with the recent referendums.
@qffaffaf affrafrfraf: yep.Its money for the cronies
@qffaffaf affrafrfraf: Exactly what will happen.
I think most know who the main problem is
@Shaun Gallagher: he is the problem with the rest of the gangsters in FFG,,,
@james rowan:the problem is the muppets who think these gombeens are doing a good job running the country and keep electing them
@Shaun Gallagher: The Bertie Kisser Harris Ryan.
@James Moylan: 100% hell yeah,its not a nice thing to say but the younger generation out number the older,,,
@james rowan: Fine. What solutions have the younger generation offered? Please tell me.
All I can see is that the younger generation have forced the ànti-sémitic government to recognise a mythical state.
256,000 housing deficit, not far off the population of Galway. Their incompetence is impressive
Darragh O’Brien will you please resign, you’ve crossed the line too many times. Quarter of a million homes are needed now according to your report, what have you and previous FF/FG ministers for Housing been doing? Over a decade of inaction and you guys are using the war in the Middle East to distract from your obligations at home. Shame on you and what about the 10Billion Euro plus you’ve paid to landlords????
@Frank Cauldhame: he’s only been Minister for Housing since June 2020, that’s why we have Housing For All and a massive increase in the delivery of houses
@Pat Hazzard: ahhh here he is now .. where’s the 200,000 houses FF said they were gonna deliver pre election 2020..? you know no shame.. even in the face of such a damming report .. which the dogs on the street could have written .. you’re still giving it the FF are great speech.. you’re some tool to be fair ..
@Brian: Hi Brian, well said, Fianna Fail don’t do shame if they did they would have disbanded as a political party decades ago, Pat is obviously a party shill but he’s swimming against a torrent of corruption and lies now trying to defend the indefensible. General Election is needed now before they add to the damage, this is so seriously bad for the government I can’t believe Harris hasn’t called the GE yet. We should not put up with this, its our country they have ruined, get them out now.
@Frank Cauldhame: That’s all he is Frank . Wants us to put aside or pretend, which is more preferable to him,the fact that FF weren’t at the wheel when the last housing crisis occurred, crippling the country .. and ignore the fact FF aren’t complicit in this countries current housing crisis since 2016 .. they propped up FG with their “confidence and supply agreement’ which worked on the basis of, if we’re ‘confident’ in your(FG) policies and budgets ., we’ll ‘supply’ our votes to Government to pass them.. and they did. But apparently poor DOB has only been in charge since 2020 .. not withstanding the fact he and his leader promised to deliver 200,000 houses pre election.. jockeys.. necks and bollix spring to mind ..
@Pat Hazzard: Are you running for office? FFG are a total disgrace.
Quarter of a million houses needed and you call that “a massive increase in the delivery of houses”
Would you like to explain your peculiar statement?
The number of additional houses required is equal to the total housing stock in County Cork.
“The CSO figures show that the total housing stock in Cork City and County in April 2022 was 242,199″
It’s clear that FFGg have been asleep at the wheel when it comes to housing. What they are good at is virtue signalling and seem to be more interested in meddling abroad than looking after the interests of Irish people.
@Thomas Sheridan: No they haven’t.. they have adopted a deliberate policy to create a housing shortage in order to drive prices up and in doing so cover the banks backs so that housing equity is greater than the loans attached to them.. Only thing is that having switched off the house building tap how do you get to turn it on again. You can give all the incentives in the world, the developers will just stick it on the house price and say ” thank you very much..next incentive please”
@GEORGE STAGG: Thank you. Nice to see a bit of intelligence being manifested in this thread!
IT. IS. NOT. IN. THE. GOVERNMENT’S. INTEREST. TO. LOWER. HOUSE. PRICES.
How many times do you have to tell sheep?
@Nick Vasilakis: It is in the interests of our future as a nation that this government resign immediately and stop hiding behind distractions to cover up their home shortcomings.
@GEORGE STAGG: I fully agree with you George. But the banks also play another inglorious role here because they are awash with Irish deposit money on which they pay zero interest, but they refuse to lend it to house and instead get the easy bucks from the ECB.
Meanwhile, developers are forced to go to financial funds and hand over part of the development as part of the deal.
I don’t believe the findings of the report will be the problem. I think the issue lies with you, the Minister, and the policies of FF/FG, as well as their mismanagement of housing over decades. The records speak for themselves: record homelessness figures, record high house prices, record low homeownership rates, record high rents, a record number of properties owned by vulture funds, and a record number of adults living at home with their parents. The list goes on and on – it’s a complete shambles by any standard. Don’t blame the messenger, Darragh O Brien.
Any one expect any thing different
Of course its problematic because they don’t have a clue what they are doing.
Ireland is finished for young people, those young people working will never own a home. Very frustrating watching multi million overspends on Modular Homes for Ukrainian’s when our own working young people will never own a home. Country is in dire straits, health, housing, energy, groceries, fuel, rents immigration, all out of control & ALL our politicians in the Dail tripping over each other to fly the Palestinian flag in the Dail. How about working on behalf of the Irish taxpayer for once, before it’s too late. How as a nation we let Fianna Fail back into power after bankrupting the State & then put O Brien in charge of dealing with Developers & Housing is beyond me. I see no light at the end of the tunnel for our young people, we need an uprising.
@SV3tN8M4: Another sinister statement to conclude your bullsh!t diatribe about non-Irish, be they Ukrainians, Palestinians or the estimated 500k non nationals who live and work here. Not to mention all those non tax paying Irish people who you seem not to give a sh!t about. Patriot my ar$e
@SYaxJ2Ts: Sinister you say? I notice as a Social Democrat you are the biggest defender of Fianna Fail on this site. The only thing ‘sinister’ going on right now is the lies/shenanigans/corruption of Fianna Fail (who are totally finished) and Fine Gael to a slightly lesser extent. I’d imagine Fine Gael are kicking themselves for cosying up to Fianna Fail who destroy everything in their path.
@Frank Cauldhame: Yes sinister. He constantly calls for revolution and predicts civil war – always in the final sentence of his post. If you haven’t noticed it, then you’re part of the problem. And don’t mistake my support for the democratic process with support for FF or the government.
@SYaxJ2Ts: `You casually call another poster ‘Sinister’ and then say I’m part of the problem that the other poster is sinister because I defended him against your triggered response, lol. You are not who you say you are just admit your a Fianna Fail shill, all you do is defend them, there is no denying it.
@Frank Cauldhame: Nothing casual about it, read it yourself: “we need an uprising” – you don’t consider that comment sinister? I can trawl through other articles and find similar comments, but I can’t be arsed. And when he’s not being sinister, he’s targeting the migrant population. You know, the poverty porn that you claim to hate so much.
@SYaxJ2Ts: So you don’t deny your a fan of the Fianna Fail party and you don’t appear to have gauged the anger out there at what Fianna Fail/Fine Gael have done to this country hence the angry comments from people who are at the end of their tether. No, you’d rather defend FF.
@Frank Cauldhame: Yes I have gauged the anger, and it certainly doesn’t equate to armed insurrection – absolutely no opinion poll nor on-going public protests suggest that rebellion is desirable by the vast majority of people. It is a laughable proposition and I can’t actually believe that we’re discussing it. And yes I do deny I’m a fan of FF. But I will defend our democratic process and call out xenophobia and racism when I see it, even if, to certain dimwits, that equates to support for FF
@SYaxJ2Ts: In fairness if I were a massive Fianna Failer like you I’d pretend otherwise also.
@Frank Cauldhame: well reasoned argument Frank, well done
What difference does his opinion make? He won’t be in the job this time next year.
@Shimo F: yet poll after poll indicates current Govt is likely to be re-elected
@Pat Hazzard: LOL! would they be like the same polls that said the referendum would be a resounding YES vote LOL
@Pat Hazzard: they buy votes
Is this the report that suggested selling “homes” with no fitted kitchen or wardrobes!
Minister, last I heard we have 13,000 people living in Emergency Accommodation like hotels and BnB’s, how much does that cost per week/month/year? How long are this people living in emergency accommodation and what is your plan for getting them out of that situation.
Minister, you as a supporter of the EU Migration Pact, are going to allow hundreds of thousands of “refugees”, what is the housing plan for them, how much will it cost the taxpayer, when do you see a situation where this issue is under control, would it be under or over 50 years?
Minister, last I heard there are or will be upwards of 20,000 asylum applications in 2024, with an average application taking 12 months, and the longest taking 77 months, how do you think your colleagues in IPAS will be able to deal with this waiting list, will they ever get through the backlog and what ramifications will this have for your ability to meet the housing demands of the nation?
I enjoyed my brief excursion into a sudden significant increase in rent demand. I passed through various organisations meant to serve a fair outcome; however, they appear to be serving window dressing.
The real estate agent could manufacture three comparable properties out of thin air before the review was sent and withdraw them once they served their purpose for the RTB. On the day of mediation, the Threshold organisation disputed my version and asked me to focus on previous rent demands made over the phone by a previously fair landlady. The front of propriety is remarkable for the lack of it.
The RPZ serves the purpose when rents have already skyrocketed in an area. My goodness, it is a greed crisis based on speculative market values with predictable outcomes into the future.
Who is the women beside him.she took over Newstalk TV last night
What a talking machine.
@Thomas Howley: She talked so much over people that you couldn’t understand a word she was saying it was gibberish like all her cronies in the Dail!
On another note….. who has been given the contract to supply tents ⛺️ to those sleeping on canal etc. Handed out on one hand and crushed and binned days later. Someone making a tidy sum.p
@June Kennedy: charities supply them from what I’ve read.
The most patriotic thing you could do would be to step down minister!
The main problem is lack of anything. Nothing because it’s just joke.
Just do the job and get it done.
Now for plan C
Ffg have turned ireland into an investment opportunity to any ruthless mega fund , and they have rigged all the systems to try disenfranchised the irish citizens and to throw money at disgustingly wealthy individuals,
This lad is next to Donnelly in the Spoofery ranks! A most deluded and incompetent individual.
The only thing problematic is the bag of hot wind of a Housing Minister!
It won’t be long now before it’s not just masses of International Protection Applicants who are being degraded and forced to live in tents along canals and isolated fields around the country; it will be members of our own families if this shower gets reelected, decades in power and this is the best they can do, pathetic.
My god his head is massive
@Hector turtlehead: will you need one to take up more space at the trough to push out the competition, more for him.
He is doing a fantastic job , 33,000 houses in 2023, probably 45 000 houses in 2024. Cannot pluck houses out of thin air. The need to be financed , planned and constructed, and anyone who has built their own home or renovated their home , knows how long it can take. Two years probably for a small project.
But of course most of the keyboard warriors on here , SF PBP or the Independents know that, and have not one original idea among them
@Peter Byrsne: little ffger so you know more than the experts who wrote the report .,fool.
@jim delaney: you’ve read the report?
@jim delaney: He’s just distracting, thats all Fianna Fail are capable of these days, the main points of the report have been released and it makes for horrific reading for the government, the article above explains it all.
@Peter Byrne: how many of those houses are private 1 off builds which have nothing to do with the government?
@Peter Byrne: talking through your hole again like yesterday.
@Peter Byrne: And what, may I ask, was happening before 2023? Since the early noughties the population has grown by 35%.
Number of teachers in 2000: 47.5K in 2022-3: 42.7k.
Habitable empty dwellings 2002, 170K 2022: 163K.
Households: 1.3million 2023 1.8million.
We don’t know how to run a country. We should sell the island to the Finns or Norwegians. Given a few decades, they might be able to civilise us
@SYaxJ2Ts: We have elderly people being evicted out of the their homes as they cannot afford the rents and have no way of getting an extra income since they are older citizens, get real next thing you’ll being seeing them in tents on the streets and it won’t be long before we will have our vulnerable disabled citizens next on the lists of eviction, and you can bet your first child on it that not one NGO will be out helping this cohort of people as they didn’t fly in with no documents or come back from War holiday’s.
Main finding is he is a bluffer
Once again here we go, if we can’t house what’s in the country why aren’t we stopping the influx?
Anything that is difficult to do because it actually might bring some results will be ignored. The gravy train has to live on no matter what.
THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC IS AWASH WITH MONEY.HERE IS YOUR CHANCE TO GET YOUNG PEOPLE ON THE HOUSING LADDER.FOR 18/30 YEAR OLDS FIRST TIME BUYERS OF NEW HOUSES -DROP ALL TAXES AND VAT ON NEW HOUSES. AND AFTER 30 YEARS OF AGE THEN THESE BUYERS CAN THEN START PAYING LOCAL CHARGES ETC.WILL YOU HEAR CANDIDATES FOR THE LOCAL ELECTIONS PUTTING FORWARD MY SUGGESTION.THE ANSWER IS NO.YOUNG PEOPLE MUST NOW INSIST ON CANDIDATES PROMISING TO DROP TAXES AND VAT FOR THESE YOUNG PEOPLE IF THEY WANT THEIR VOTES.
It is so ironic that so many people are focussing all of their attention on FF. Most of the people who are affected by the housing crisis, which is most of us, vote for parties who talk the talk but when it comes to actively working on the ground to find practical solutions and voting in councils to get the means to build, they are too forming cosy alliances to give a damn. Coming up with counter plans to FF to solve the issue is beyond them. Electors, instead of holding their own politicians to account or trying to find some common ground with those who oppose them i.e. house owners not wanting the value of their houses reduced, while billions spent on social housing. The system is badly broken and for all of our sakes we need a radicle approach and that doesn’t lie in voting for parties who will never get into power or to those who place ‘unity’ above all else.
@Barry Hannigan: Are you aware that FF have been in power for almost a century. Why have they stopped building houses? Is it because their donor landlords are greasing the wheels of power?
have your say