Revealed: The government has spent 1 billion euros of taxpayer money on private homes

The government has been accused of exacerbating the country's housing crisis by buying private sector homes rather than building social housing to address the shortage of supply.

Fianna Fáil's spokesperson on housing Darragh O 'Brien has collected statistics from 31 local authorities that show that the last two governments have spent nearly 1 billion euros of the same amount. Taxpayers' money to buy private sector homes since 2011.

Brien accused the Fine Gael of being ideologically opposed to the construction of social housing at a time of high demand for property, given the high number of people on the housing list.

By a request for access to information, he says that the government has spent just under 1 billion euros of taxpayer money to buy 5,559 housing units.

In addition, he stated that this has contributed to the growth of housing costs. "Not only did Fine Gael's plan push up real estate prices in general, but in many cases it would have been significantly cheaper for the state to build new social housing," he said. he adds.

According to figures from the Ministry of Housing, it would have cost 22,000 euros less (199,000 euros) to have built a completely new unit in Dublin during the reference period. "At the same time," said Mr. O. Brien

"In Cork, the average price paid for a unit was € 191,000, but building a new house would have saved € 36,000 from the property. taxpayer money. "

this occurred at a time when there were "more than 3,000 hectares of land zoned and serviced throughout the country that could be used" to build new homes to accommodate some of the 130,000 people on the list of housing. He said, "The government is not focused on building social homes, they will throw money at the problem rather than manage it." I think, ideologically, that They have a problem with the construction of houses. "

M. O & # 39; Brien said that Fianna Fáil's policy was to create a national development authority that would oversee housing construction at the national level. "If we act together on social housing, we could do 5,000 social housing a year," he said.

In response, a spokesman for Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy said the government's policy of buying private property had come to an end.

"After the first housing summit, Minister Murphy decided to move from acquisitions to construction," he said. supports the Government's "Rebuilding Ireland" strategy, which is a five-year program to "accelerate the construction of social housing in Ireland".

"It can not be done overnight and Fianna Fáil recognizes it," the spokesman said. "This year we are going to ld more than 3,800 social homes – an increase over 2017. There is no ideological problem, but it is very obvious that houses can not be built overnight. "

Irish Independent