AARON KENT
Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, John Cummins spoke to The Munster Express at the launch of three affordable and cost rental schemes in Waterford, last week.
When we caught up with Minister Cummins, he was officially launching a 25-unit affordable housing scheme at The Courtyard in Ballycarnane, Tramore. The other two housing schemes being launched on the day were at Mountneil and Gort na hInse, Ballynaneashagh.
This was Minister Cummins second visit to his home county of Waterford to launch such housing schemes in as many weeks, following the launch of An Garrán, in Tramore, on 7 November, last. Minister Cummins attended the beginning stages of both projects and expressed pride at being part of delivering housing for Waterford, his home county.
When asked by The Munster Express if he accepts that the government has failed to hit its housing target this year, given that 40,000 homes were promised and 30,000 look set to be delivered, Minster Cummins replied: “We don’t know what the out-turn is going to be this year”. “We had a disappointing out-turn last year in terms of housing delivery,” he acknowledged.
“It was largely down to the fact that there was a huge fall off in apartment delivery in the country.”
Highlighting the proactive action of the government, the Minister said: “We’ve moved to bring in more apartment standards, which the sector gave evidence at the joint Oireachtas committee only two weeks ago, that said it would save on average €50,000 per unit”.
“The government also moved in the budget to reduce the VAT on apartments, we’ve also moved to exempt corporation tax on cost rentals because we want to see more cost rentals being delivered … to be able to compete with the private market over time.”
It was then put to Minister Cummins that the new Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025-2030 plan launched on 13 November had been criticised for being aspirational in that the government may try to incentivise private companies to build the houses it needs, but it cannot control their output.
To which Minister Cummins replied: “Anyone that thinks the State can do everything is simply misleading the public”.
“It has to be a combination of local authority, approved housing bodies, the land development agency, and crucially the private sector,” he said.
“The State is the largest investor in housing at this moment in time. Next year there will be €9bn euro in capital spent on housing. To put it in context over the next number of years, €1 of every €3 of taxpayers’ money that will be spent in this country will be spent on housing or infrastructure to facilitate housing,” Minister Cummins explained.
Asked if he accepts housing is not in the governments control ultimately, Minister Cummins replied: “Ultimately, it will take all levers”.
“What the housing plan is seeking to do is try and create the environment for the private sector to do what they do well …”
AARON KENT
Funded by The Local Democracy Reporting Scheme
