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The new Lord Mayor (Ardmhéara) of Dublin, Sinn Féin Councillor Mícheál Mac Donncha, has pledged to tackle the housing crisis across Ireland.
He also said the campaign to save the Moore Street 1916 Battlefield Site will be one of his top priorities.
Councillor Mícheál Mac Donncha said: "My first act as Ardmhéara will be to request a direct meeting with Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy. I will also be requesting that he fulfils his predecessor's commitment to report back to a full meeting of this City Council on his Department’s programme to address the dire shortage of housing.
"I know I speak for the members of this City Council and the vast majority of our citizens when I say that there absolutely has to be a step-change in Government housing policy. This City Council must be given the resources and the support – financial, legal, logistical – to build homes, to purchase homes, to refurbish and extend homes – to meet the housing needs of the people. I commend the efforts of City Council officials and staff who are doing their best within the confines of central government policy and allocated resources. But much, much more is needed.
"I take this opportunity to call on Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy and his Cabinet colleagues to release the funding needed for Dublin City Council and the other Dublin local authorities to develop Council housing in sufficient quantity. The capital funding for housing in this State in 2017 is €732 million, a drop of nearly €100 million on the 2010 allocation. This clearly shows the mountain the City has to climb.
"As well as greatly increasing funding, the Minister must end the stifling bureaucracy in the Department of Housing that is causing seemingly endless delay. To meet an arbitrary deadline to empty hotels and B&Bs, a deadline that will not now be met anyway, we have seen huge energy put into the provision of yet another emergency measure – hub accommodation in this City. We need to see the same energy and urgency put into developing permanent homes for people.
"The housing crisis is a cause of huge hardship across our society. It is also adversely affecting our economy. How can Dublin be expected to develop economically if working people cannot have access to even the most modest of homes in this City?"
(CD/MH)
