The Delivering Homes, Building Communities plan announced by the Government on Thursday is the fourth major effort to set out proposals to tackle the housing crisis in a little more than a decade.
Social housing strategy
In 2014, Enda Kenny’s Fine Gael government, in coalition with the Labour Party, said its housing strategy would provide up to 110,000 homes over the next six years, including building and refurbishing 35,000 social housing units, at a cost of €3.8 billion. It was known as the Social Housing Strategy.
The then minister for the environment, community and local government, Labour TD Alan Kelly, published the plan and said the State would support up to 75,000 households through what he called “an enhanced private rental sector”.
110,000 homes built across six years would have averaged more than 18,000 homes per year.
RM Block
The plan was announced in November of 2014, a year in which 5,518 homes were built. In 2015, 7,219 homes were built and in 2016, 9,728 homes were built.
Rebuilding Ireland
In 2016, the Rebuilding Ireland housing plan was published by then minister for housing Simon Coveney. It came under a Fine Gael-Independent minority government that was supported by Fianna Fáil through a confidence and supply arrangement.
This strategy involved €6 billion in funding and aimed to increase home builds to 25,000 per year by 2020, provide 47,000 new social housing units by its conclusion of the plan and accommodate 87,000 families and individuals in the private rented sector through Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) or the Rental Accommodation Scheme.
At the time, the government promised that by mid-2017 hotels and B&Bs would only be used as emergency accommodation for families “in limited circumstances”.
The plan’s aim to increase home builds to 25,000 per year by 2020 failed. The closest it got to its goal was in 2019, when 21,033 homes were built.
Housing for All
In 2021, the Housing for All plan was set out by then minister for housing Darragh O’Brien. It promised 312,750 new homes between 2022 to the end of 2030 under the Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael-Green Party government.
Some 90,000 of these homes were planned to be social housing, along with 53,800 affordable and cost rental homes. A total of 170,550 privately-owned or rented homes were envisaged.
The plan also included two affordable housing schemes that would make 4,000 such homes available each year, along with an affordable purchase/shared equity scheme for first-time buyers.
In 2022 and 2023, the government surpassed its target to achieve its goal of delivering 312,750 new homes between 2022 to the end of 2030.
However, in 2021, 2024 and 2025 it failed to hit its target - most significantly in 2025, when only 24,325 homes were built, missing the target of 41,000.
O’Brien, at the time, said the plan represented the “largest State building programme in our history”.
There have been five ministers with responsibility for housing since 2014, Kelly (2014 to 2016), Coveney (2016 to 2017), the then Fine Gael TD Eoghan Murphy (2017 to 2020), O’Brien (2020 to 2025) and now Fianna Fáil’s James Browne.
