Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government Simon Coveney has said he plans to introduce a "comprehensive response" to the State's housing crisis within the first 100 days of Government, describing the crisis as a "national emergency".
Speaking on his way into the first meeting of the new Cabinet on Wednesday morning, Mr Coveney said he would work with local authorities to provide more social housing through a combination of “building, acquisition, rental accommodation and supporting people in the private rental sector as well”.
The Minister said he had already met with Fr Peter McVerry and was scheduled to meet with representatives from Focus Ireland and the Simon Community on Wednesday afternoon.
“I think we have a national emergency that needs a response that’s comprehensive and so I’ve been working late hours trying to start the process of putting that response together,” said Mr Coveney.
"We simply don't have enough homes for families in Ireland. That means we need to find a way of getting the construction industry up and running to build a lot more than they're currently building and we also need to have appropriate emergency responses to families, some of whom are living in hotels at the moment.
“That is not suitable accommodation for children and families to be growing up in, so we need to replace that with something more suitable as quickly as we can.”
Mr Coveney said the public would have to “show some patience” in terms of the Government’s response to the housing crisis, but said he would bring urgency to the issue to ensure an appropriate and timely response.
“There was about 13,000 homes provided last year, we have a target of about 17,000 this year across a broad range of approaches and my job is to accelerate that and to make sure we do as much in as short a time frame that we can.”
Asked whether he thought Cabinet ministers should be paying their water charges, Mr Coveney said he believed everyone should pay their water bills and that Cabinet ministers “should lead by example”.
Members of the new Cabinet are meeting on Wednesday morning with a brief agenda. It is understood the programme agreed on by the Independent TDs and Fine Gael party will be published after the meeting.
The 160-page document makes a series of policy commitments in the area of health, housing, education, political reform and justice.
Mr Coveney revealed earlier this week that he was offered a choice of ministries by Taoiseach Enda Kenny but opted for housing as he sees it as one of the most important challenges facing the new Government.
