Opposition parties have said the housing crisis is becoming worse due in part to what they claimed is the failure of the Government to invest in water and electricity infrastructure.
TDs from Sinn Féin, the Labour Party, the Social Democrats, Independent Ireland and technical group members raised the concerns during a lengthy Dáil debate this evening.
Speaking during a Sinn Féin motion seeking increased investment in housing-related infrastructure, the party’s Spokesperson on Housing Eoin Ó Broin said there are serious issues with water and electricity infrastructure in parts of the country.
He said this is due to a lack of prioritisation, and is delaying what he said are badly needed housing development plans.
Mr Ó Broin’s view was supported by party colleagues including Matt Carthy, who said developers who want to build houses are not being able to progress their plans.
Labour’s Spokesperson on Housing Conor Sheehan referred to research suggesting Ireland’s infrastructure spend “is 20% lower than comparable countries”.
He said this is resulting in some Land Development Agency projects which are “shovel ready” being delayed because of what he said is a lack of adequate funding for Uisce Éireann.
His view was repeated by party colleague Alan Kelly, who described the National Development Plan as “a dog’s dinner”, saying Ireland is “not very good” at planning housing or infrastructure and that claims to the contrary are in his opinion “total tokenistic rubbish, an absolute waste of time”.
“It’s already over, the time [to act] has gone, you can throw Apple money after it but it’s the rock on which we’ll perish,” he said.
Social Democrats Spokesperson on Housing Rory Hearne took aim at Minister for Housing and Fianna Fáil TD James Browne, saying in his view that the minister “is now five months in office and has not pulled together a meeting” of infrastructure groups “to see what they’ve done”.
Mr Hearne said in his opinion it’s “very clear Uisce Éireann do not have the funding to pay for 50,000 houses”, referring to a housing construction target for this year.
Responding to the criticism, Minister Browne said the Government is doing what it can to make “a positive difference” with its policies, and that Sinn Féin’s Dáil motion, in his view, was wrong to say the “Government is not doing enough”.