Archbishop Eamon Martin has criticised a lack of ambition in the Government’s Housing for All plan in a written response to Minister Darragh O’Brien’s request that the Church identify property it owns to use in tackling the housing crisis.
While welcoming the plan, Archbishop Martin wrote that “sadly”, Ireland’s current national crisis in housing has “in large part resulted from political and economic choices made over recent decades”.
Three years on from the Bishops’ 2018 pastoral letter on housing and homelessness, Archbishop Martin said “we face the same problems, but on a larger scale”.
The targets set out in the Housing for All plan aim at 32,700 new homes per year.
However, Archbishop Martin noted that “while this is an ambitious target, research shows that it may well not be enough to meet current and future needs”.
Dr Martin said “there are more than 90,000 homes being sought already, well in excess of the 32,700 units per annum targeted in Housing for All”.
He said that the Church will continue to encourage discussion and action at a local level, through dioceses, parishes and various communities, agencies and bodies.
“As Christians, committed to the teaching and example of Jesus Christ, we will continue to play our part in helping people who are suffering because of this housing crisis,” Archbishop Martin concluded.