13/04/2018

Use State Lands For Residential Housing - Munster

Sinn Féin TD Imelda Munster has made a plea to the government to use state land for residential housing.

Deputy Munster, Sinn Féin TD for Louth and East Meath, made these comments after three reports were published earlier this week on the cost of residential housing. The reports raised issues like Irish construction costs, which are comparable with other EU countries Germany, France and the UK.

Just like Minister Murphy, who published the reports earlier this week, Deputy Munster outlined how unsurprising the facts were.

She said: "These reports confirm what we already know. The market cannot deliver genuinely affordable housing, and state owned land must be used to deliver homes."

Ms Munster also outlined specific problems with state lands, detailing that Louth has 53 acres of council-owned land banks that are "sitting idle".

She confirmed that she has been in talks with the Housing Minister about these issues, but stated that despite her efforts nothing had happened.

"This crisis affects every part of the housing sector, from people who have been made homeless, families that have been on housing lists for many years, people who are paying extortionate rent and those who feel that they will never be in a position to buy a home due to the escalation of house prices," she said.

"Affordable and social housing needs to be delivered on state lands by local authorities; not by public private partnerships or private developers who are only interested in profit."

(CM/LM)

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