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Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy TD has said official social housing build figures have lost all credibility and the Minister must take drastic action to tackle the housing emergency.

Deputy Murphy was commenting on reports showing that local authorities built only about half of the number of social houses that were officially recorded in figures from the Department of the Environment for last year.

Deputy Murphy said:

“This latest evidence that our housing figures lack all credibility really has to be the last straw. Minister Murphy cannot continue to hide behind inflated and inaccurate house build figures while the housing lists have more than 120,000 applicants.

“These figures show that while the official local authority social house build figure for 2017 was 780, in reality only 394 houses were actually built by local authorities. The other 386 houses were purchases from the private sector. A total of eleven councils haven’t completed a single social house in 2017, including Wicklow and South Dublin County Council.

“This is further evidence that local authorities are not pulling their weight in terms of resolving the housing crisis. They are by far the weakest link in the chain and it’s difficult to have any confidence in them.

“A new national Regeneration and Development Agency was promised as part of the much-hyped National Planning Framework to work with local authorities, public bodies and the business community. From the evidence we have seen today, it can’t come soon enough.”

ENDS

30 May 2018

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