Mayo View: The housing crisis and the key credibility question

The credibility of the new government is under fresh scrutiny following the publication of two reports revealing a serious shortfall in housing completions last year.

An analysis by the Central Statistics Office stated that only 30,000 new homes were built in 2024, a drop on the previous year. Then figures released by Construction Information Services Ireland indicated that 29,136 homes were built last year.

The statistics presented an opportunity to Sinn Féin to score political points over the fact Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael had both claimed during the general election campaign last November that 40,000 new homes were being built in 2024, the suggestion being that voters had been misled.

The leader of the Opposition, Deputy Mary Lou McDonald, gleefully rubbed it in when she told Taoiseach Micheál Martin to his face: "Not alone had the rate of house-building stagnated on the Taoiseach's watch but it was in fact going backwards."

Mr. Martin was having none of it, of course, denying any suggestion that the electorate was mislead - stating external groupings, not his party or Fine Gael, were making the estimates regarding the prospects for the high 40,000 figure in 2024 when 33,000 had been the target set in the Housing for All programme.

Significantly, however, he did point to the need for a fundamental shift, not just within the government but in the Oireachtas more generally, "in our approach and our attitude to private sector investment in housing."

That is needed, he said, "because a lot of what has happened has disincentivised private investment in housing."

He added: "The State will not be able to do it all on its own."

However, the bottom line is that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael were re-elected to government with the expectation that the housing crisis will be sorted out over the next five years and no excuses will be good enough if those expectations are not met one way or another.