‘Not right’ that social home delivery has not reduced homeless figures – Harris

Taoiseach Simon Harris has said that “it is not right” that social housing delivery has not reduced the number of people who are homeless.

The Fine Gael leader defended the government’s record on housing and said he did not believe two schemes for first-time buyers were inflating house prices.

Mr Harris also said that he expected house prices to fall when around 50,000-60,000 homes a year are being built.

The latest Central Statistics Office figures show that house prices increased by 10% in the 12 months to September, up 10.8% in Dublin and 9.4% outside the capital.

On homelessness, the official Department of Housing figures show there were 14,760 people in emergency accommodation at the end of September, including 4,561 children – both record highs.

Asked on RTE Radio’s Morning Ireland about the steady increase in the number of homeless figures over the coalition’s term in office, Mr Harris said: “It is not right that we saw the highest social houses since the 1970s last year and that did not make an inroad on homelessness.”

He said the two first-time buyers’ schemes – Help to Buy and First Home – were not inflationary but admitted they were “not perfect”.

“I think what is inflationary is the lack of supply and obviously we’ve made a lot of progress on supply.

“Fine Gael is putting forward a 40 billion-euro housing plan to get to 303,000 new homes over the next five years.”

Asked when house prices would become more affordable or fall, he said “as we get to 50,000-60,000 homes a year”.

This is higher than the figures previously given by Tanaiste Micheal Martin, who said that house prices would begin to moderate when 45,000-50,000 homes a year are being built.

Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien said he did not disagree with the Tanaiste’s assessment but was wary of making predictions.

Mr Harris said: “We have 40 billion euro of a plan now to fix the housing situation for once and for all.

“But what I won’t do in this election, being honest, is I won’t pull the rug from under first-time buyers. The supports that are needed now – the Help to Buy and the First Home scheme – while imperfect in some ways, they are necessary to bridge that gap you’re rightly highlighting between the supply being built today and the supply that is needed.

“There are serious choices on the ballot next Friday in relation to housing, serious issues, and I still have serious issues in relation to the Sinn Fein housing plan.”

Asked about Fianna Fail’s claims that they had turned housing around, Mr Harris said: “If any one political party thinks that the housing crisis can be solved by them alone or by one personality within the government, that really misses the point.

“Housing needs everyone pulling together.”

Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast, Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin also criticised Sinn Fein’s housing plan.

“Sinn Fein believe in this sort of socialist view that we have to control how people live, they’re not really into home ownership.

“Most people buying a house today, young people, will want to buy both the house and the land that the house is on.

“They don’t want to end up in years to come in all sorts of complexities. They don’t want difficulties in getting mortgages either.

“There (will be) 125,000 new buyers over the next five years at a minimum, and they could lose anything up to 80,000 euro because of Sinn Fein policies if you combine the First Home scheme with the Help to Buy scheme.

“It is, in our view, a very big choice – first-time buyers need really to see that.”

Mr Martin also accused Fine Gael and Mr Harris of being “incorrect” when they said their manifesto pledges to keep state spending within the 5% limit.

“I couldn’t understand why he said it, because it’s incorrect. I mean, they had to delete a tweet during the debate last week, where they made the same point in some tweets.”

Fine Gael launched policies for Dublin and other urban centres, committing to implement recommendations of the Dublin City Centre Taskforce, with a focus on revitalising O’Connell Street, delivering more visible policing and security, and transforming derelict sites.

Sinn Fein unveiled measures in pursuit of Irish unity, during which leader Mary Lou McDonald said the party would be open to taking legal action against the UK to clarify what criteria need to be met for a border poll to be called.

The Green Party announced a policy to extend its pilot to provide a basic income for artists to carers as well, offering weekly payments of 325 euro on top of the carer’s allowance.

Labour, meanwhile, launched a plan for workers at the Rosie Hackett Bridge while the Social Democrats highlighted plans for a youth manifesto.