WELCOME TO POLICY Matters, a new series from The Journal that takes a deep dive into the ideas and solutions proposed by Ireland’s politicians on some of the biggest issues of the day.
It is no surprise to anyone that Eoin Ó Broin believes a radical overhaul is necessary for the state to start delivering adequate levels of housing. “We all know that the targets underpinning the government’s own plan are wrong. We’ve known them since they were published. ‘Bureaucracy nightmare’ On top of increasing public housing targets and delivery, Ó Broin wants to tear down the red tape and bureaucracy that he says local authorities and housing bodies have to work within.
Out of the 20,000 public homes Sinn Féin wants to deliver a year, Ó Broin said 20% of these should have to come from vacant or derelict properties.
But Ó Broin said the state needs to move faster on this front. He points to places like Scandinavia, London, Paris and parts of Poland that are increasingly using majority off-site manufacturing and assembly of residential units. He also said we need to move away from the way we build traditionally in order to meet our emissions reduction targets.
For example, The Journal asked what he would do if he was not able to deliver on the party’s previous election commitment to halve the social housing waiting list in its first term. “If I’m at the end of a five year term, as the Minister for housing, and homelessness has increased, then I’ve failed. I shouldn’t be allowed to continue the job.”
“But what I’ll also say is this. Governments, even good governments can make proposals in good faith, can work hard to implement those, and they don’t work. That can happen to any government. “I’d like to be more generous to the government, genuinely. If there were things they were doing well, I would say, but the evidence is pretty thin on the ground.”
“My problem now is age. I’m in my 50s. So like a lot of people in their 50s, there’s a certain point in which you wouldn’t get mortgage finance anyway,” Ó Broin said.“Most people probably do know I’m a renter because I’m pretty vocal about it,” he said.