The Daily Star Ireland
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has rejected claims that Ireland’s housing construction is faltering, despite new data revealing a sharp drop in housing commencement notices for the first half of this year. Speaking in Cork on Friday, Mr. Martin attributed the decline to expected fallout after the expiration of a development levy waiver that had boosted construction in previous years.
Drop in Commencements Explained as “Expected Correction”
According to the Department of Housing, just 1,356 new commencement notices were filed in June, bringing the total for the first six months of 2024 to 6,325. This marks a dramatic fall compared to the same period last year, when over 34,500 notices were submitted — a spike driven by the government’s temporary removal of development levies for builders.
While this year’s figure is less than half the levels recorded in both 2022 and 2023, Mr. Martin urged critics to consider the broader context. “Last year was an exceptional year with 33,000 commencements due to the waiver,” he said. “The year before was 15,000. So naturally, we foresaw a decrease once the levy was reinstated.”
He emphasized that the government anticipated this drop and remains focused on delivering actual housing completions, which he said have been trending upward in the first quarter of the year.
Pipeline Projects and Long-Term Construction Strategy
Despite the downturn in commencements, Mr. Martin pointed to a large volume of homes currently under development or awaiting activation. “Thousands of houses are in the pipeline,” he said, stressing the importance of unlocking stalled projects through strategic infrastructure funding provided under the National Development Plan.
He noted that the government is actively working to encourage both public and private investment to ramp up construction efforts, particularly in the apartment sector. “We need a significant increase in apartment building,” the Taoiseach added. “We already have sufficient planning permissions, and the updated planning framework will help local councils zone more land to meet future demand.”
Addressing concerns about the scale of the drop, Mr. Martin reiterated his long-term focus: increasing annual housing completions from the current 33,000 to a target of 50,000.
Opposition Criticism Highlights Misleading Figures
However, critics in the opposition have expressed concern over what they see as a failure to maintain construction momentum. Social Democrats TD Rory Hearne called the collapse in commencement notices “deeply disappointing,” and accused the government of using the pre-election levy waiver to inflate commencement figures in a way that misrepresented real housing delivery.
Hearne argued that while commencement notices suggest work is beginning, they do not guarantee completion. “There’s a major difference between a notice and a finished home,” he said, suggesting the public had been misled about how many houses would be built in 2023 and beyond.
He pointed to what he described as a surge in notices ahead of last November’s election as evidence that the waiver was more about optics than sustainable development. “The government claimed 40,000 homes would be delivered last year, but the actual number was just over 30,000 — and we’re on track for a similar result this year.”
Hearne also criticized the reliability of commencement notices as a measure of housing market activity, calling for greater transparency in how progress is reported and promising further scrutiny of the government’s housing strategy.
Outlook: Completion Still the Focus Amid Uncertainty
As Ireland continues to grapple with a national housing crisis, the government is balancing public expectations with the realities of post-inflation construction costs and planning bottlenecks. While the sharp decline in commencements has raised red flags, Mr. Martin and his administration remain confident that ongoing reforms and investments will result in a steady increase in completed homes in the years ahead.
The debate underscores the tension between short-term political optics and long-term housing delivery, with both government and opposition agreeing on one point: the need to accelerate the building of quality, affordable homes across the country.
