Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 11 April 2024
83. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to confirm that the review of housing targets currently under way between his Department and the ERSI will explicitly include consideration of existing unmet housing demand including existing unmet demand for social, cost rental and affordable purchase homes. [15611/24]
View answerThe planned review of targets is underway and, once again, will be based on independent, peer reviewed research and modelling by the ESRI.
Importantly, the ESRI is not developing housing targets. Rather, it is researching and modelling a range of scenarios for future demographic housing demand at local authority level for each year to 2040. Accordingly, while some level of pent-up demand will be captured in the ESRI housing demand scenarios, an explicit consideration of pent-up demand is outside the scope of the ESRI's work.
Ultimately, it will be a matter for my Department to translate the ESRI projections into housing targets having regard to, among a range of other things, the prevailing level of unmet or existing demand. This is already provided for in the current average annual target of 33,000 per year, including both the deficit in new housing completions between 2017 and 2019, and the number of ‘concealed’ and homeless households at the time the targets were developed.
The revised targets will make similar provision, including both projected future demand and unmet or existing need across all tenures. I expect revised targets to be published in the Autumn.
