'Everything isn't rosy' Housing Minister visits Laois to open houses
Minister for Housing Darragh O'Brien visited Laois to open houses on a day that zero homes are available to rent in Portlaoise on Daft, while the numbers on the housing list remain at almost 1,800, agreeing “everything isn’t rosy”.
Minister Darragh O'Brien toured five developments built either by Laois County Council and the North and East Housing Development.
“That whole private rental market is really constrained. We’ve seen substantial new tenancies created. But I want us to be less dependent on HAP and deliver permanent homes for people.”
He said that nationwide, waiting lists have “substantially decreased”.
“Everything isn’t rosy, I know that as well, but we’ve made progress.
“Today in the four or five schemes we are visiting we’ve close to 100 homes. There are more coming through. We’ve a very progressive council here who want to see housing and don’t object to housing,” Minister O’Brien said.
“What gives me great heart is when you’re meeting people who’ve been in private rental accommodation, and there’s another resident here who was in homeless emergency accommodation for a period. That person now has a home for their family.
“I’m under no illusion of the scale of the challenge that’s there. But there is progress now. You’ve got to build it in a sustainable way and that’s what we’re doing,” the Minister said.
“But we’ve a big job of work to do. We’ve 10, 12 years of significant undersupply.
“Last year was a good start for Housing For All, 29,851 new homes and Laois exceeded their target for social housing delivery. They’ve a really good pipeline this year too. People are waiting here four and five years and in other parts of the country it's up to 10 years.”
Minister O’Brien said that modular homes like those being built for Ukraine people in Rathdowney are not a short term solution for people waiting on homes.
“We are focused on more modern methods of construction to deliver permanent homes. We will scale that up this year.
“The temporary accommodation for our friends from Ukraine is more semi-permanent. All of those solutions help the overall delivery.
“The biggest challenge is those who don’t have a home at all. That’s my big focus. We are well advanced with other options in modular housing to make sure those who are in emergency accommodation exit out sooner
“No-one ever wants to be in that situation, most are there for six months or less. But there are pressures on the system, on the rental market,” he said.
“Landlords, the phrase has been demonised. That has an effect. It reduces supply. It has levelled off, fortunately but it’s still at a low base and that’s why we need more homes built”.
Laois County Council welcomed the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to the county to open 100 new houses at four housing developments.
Minister Darragh O'Brien was in Laois on Monday, May 15 to officially open developments in Ballylinan, Portlaoise, Ballyroan and Durrow.
His first stop was the 21 houses at Doirin Alainn Housing Development Ballylinan on the east of the county.
This is a North and East Housing Development delivered in three phases by JJ Wall Construction Ltd.
A further 10 houses were opened at Gleann na Glaise Housing Development in Ballyroan.
This is a Laois County Council Social Housing Capital Investment Programme project (SHIP). The SHIP programme funds construction of new build units directly managed by councils, known as Direct Builds.
The Ballyroan project is made up of ten three-bed two storey homes.
Minister O'Brien then visited Durrow to open 22 houses. This is also a SHIP project that includes: ten two-bedroom two storey houses, eight three-bedroom, two-storey units and four two-bedroom one storey homes.
His last stop was in Portlaoise where he opened 55 homes at The Maltings and Roselawn residential Development in Portlaoise.
This is a Cluid Residential voluntary housing body development comprising of 55 residential units made up of 40 two-bedroom apartments and 15 three-bedroom houses.
The Minister was accompanied on his visit on Monday by Laois County Council's Chief Executive John Mulholland as well as staff from the council's housing section and county councillors from all parties including the Cathaoirleach Cllr Thomasina Connell and Cllr Caroline Dwane Stanley Chair of Housing Strategic Policy Committee.
Minister of State Seán Fleming also met with the housing Minister.
The Minister saw for himself some of the work being done in Laois in 2022 when he visited the county with officials and some councillors from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.