'Sláintecare-type' approach urged to social and affordable homes plan
A “Slaintecare-type” plan aimed at dealing with the country’s housing shortage is being developed in the government formation talks.
Part of the approach is a “radical” social and affordable housing building project which would help address the undersupply of homes, which some experts say is in the region of 200,000.
All parties involved in discussions have said that a cross-party agreement as to how to tackle the undersupply of housing is badly needed.
One of the ideas being proposed is constituting a new joint Oireachtas committee on housing to allow it begin a programme of work before the government formation talks are concluded.
A decision could be made when the Dáil convenes next Thursday.
Senior party sources told the Irish Examiner that the general election result reflected a need to prioritise a significant escalation in house building by state authorities.
Fianna Fáil’s Darragh O’Brien has previously called for a such a cross-party approach but warned that some policies being proposed by Sinn Féin are “unworkable”. He said that while discussions are still at an early stage, the idea of reaching a consensus on the issue of homelessness and housing delivery makes sense.
Meanwhile, the Department of Housing released its latest homeless figures which showed there were 10,271 people (6,697 adults and 3,574 children) living in emergency accommodation in the final week of January 2020.
This represents an increase of 388 adults and 152 children compared to the figures for the final week of December 20
