Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Our plans address every element of housing provision, starting with the most basic of training for more craftspeople to build and renovate homes. Thousands of new apprenticeships are in place and people are being trained in new and urgently-needed skills, including those who will support our programme to insulate social and private housing to reduce energy bills permanently and help meet climate targets. As a result of our policies, there are today 20,000 more people working in construction than before the pandemic.

Any fair person knows a major blockage in housing is also found in the length and complexity of our planning procedures. Almost no other country experiences the type of systematic objections and legal actions used to try to stop so many projects. Added to this is the policy of the largest Opposition party to oppose systematically significant developments using an ever-changing list of reasons.

Every single politician and party has spoken against some projects but no one has ever come near the industrial-scale opposition to constructing homes which is a defining part of Sinn Féin’s electoral strategy. There are thousands of homes which they have sought to block in Dublin alone, more than 5,000 since the last election. While they have not always succeeded, they have often delayed vital projects. This is not an accident; it is a policy and it is an abuse by a party that desperately wants housing to remain as an issue to be exploited.

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