Social housing a miserable failure
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Monday December 21 2009
A decade ago, the Planning and Development Act 2000 provided that 20pc of new houses built in estates would be given over to "social and affordable housing". But somehow the vision, and the reality, got lost in the years of the Celtic Tiger.
The tragic net result can be found in figures, published in this newspaper today, which show an enormous and evidently unmanageable increase in the numbers on local authority waiting lists.
Statistics from the Department of the Environment in 2008 showed 56,000 families on the waiting lists. A year later, an investigation by the Irish Independent arrived at a figure of 78,000. Now another investigation, covering 13 of the 90 housing authorities, finds a figure of 99,846, which means that the total must be well over 100,000.
The numbers seeking council accommodation have risen sharply in almost all areas. The most dramatic result comes from Clare, where the list has shot up by 167pc. Behind the figures lie thousands of stories of misery and frustration. Behind them, too, lies the question how to find a workable, if any, remedy.
One simple move would be for the Environment Department to compile and publish figures annually. That would enable the public to gauge the shocking extent of the housing problem.
A second answer is essentially political. The Government must admit -- not least to itself -- that the "social and affordable" initiative has failed. And it can resolve that it will never again permit the construction industry to decide, in effect, housing policy.
