Editorial: The Government is going to need more than a ‘step change’ to tackle housing

But no amount of “nudging the narrative” can deflect from the basic fact that this and several previous governments have failed when it comes to delivering on housing.

The leaked report of the Government’s own Housing Commission has called for a “radical strategic reset of housing policy”.

The findings of the expert body have been with Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien since early this month. “Emergency action” is now required to address the “housing deficit”, is the biting assessment in its executive overview. The underlying housing deficit ranges from 212,500 to 256,000, it says.

Responding to an attack from Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, who said the report was a “damning ­indictment”, Taoiseach Simon Harris said: “Every single day Government is restless to do more.”

And that’s why the Commission was set up in the first place, he added. The Coalition may well be trying, but it is not meeting the dire need for more homes.

Nor did Mr Harris need to wait for this report to discover just how great the gap between supply and demand was. In March last year, the then-taoiseach Leo Varadkar admitted there was a deficit of 250,000 homes in the country. He, too, accepted it will take a long time to resolve the shortage.

He told a meeting of the Fine Gael parliamentary party that 30,000 homes were built in 2022 and another 35,000 were under construction last year. However, the overall deficit in terms of need was at a quarter of a million, he said. This is the same figure as that mentioned by the Commission. “It will take a long time to close the gap but the corner can be turned this year,” Mr Varadkar told TD and senator colleagues.

More than a year later, the Government’s own watchdog is calling for emergency action to address a flashing red light which was already acknowledged.

Mr Harris said the Government is “restless to do more”. Explaining why it hasn’t done more to date will be critical when it comes to facing voters.

Mr Harris further said: “What we need now, is we need a step change in terms of ambition.”

Once again, voters will wonder where was that ambition before it escalated to an “emergency”.

Labour leader Ivana Bacik said: “Years of economic prosperity have been wasted by successive governments that failed to tackle what is undoubtedly the issue of our time.”

It’s time to end the over-reliance on private investors in the housing market, she said.​

We never expected a quick fix but a radical, effective response is now desperately overdue.

We know when our backs are to the wall there are wells of thought and dynamos of energy which we can tap into. The Government will need to do both on housing as it’s hard to see how a “step change” will suffice when its own advisers are highlighting a giant leap is urgently needed to span the divide.