THE GOVERNMENT IS considering the temporary scrapping of development fees and subsidising the building of affordable rental apartments in a bid to alleviate the housing crisis, junior minister Martin Heydon has said.
Last week, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar suggested Ireland is short of 250,000 homes, which is contributing to inflated house prices and rents.“Housing For All is delivering but it is a huge crisis, it is a huge challenge for us to face,” he told RTE’s The Week In Politics. We’re seeing really significant investment and then the temporary scrapping of development levies that will make building more affordable. Appearing on the same programme, Sinn Fein TD Rose Conway Walsh described what had been detailed as “clearly panic measures” and called for the reinstatement of the eviction ban.
“We haven’t seen the full details yet, and obviously we will evaluate it, but again we would call on the Government to reinstatement the eviction ban to give time so people have somewhere to go.