Seamus Healy raises Housing Emergency Measures in the Dáil
need to declare housing emergency immediately
Today, Wednesday, 2nd April, Deputy Seamus Healy will bring before the Dáil the following motion Housing Emergency Measures in the Public Interest.
“If we are to address the homelessness and housing crisis, the Government and the new Dáil must declare a housing emergency immediately.
“We need to commence an emergency county council house building programme of social and affordable homes.
“We need to legislate for real security of tenure, real rent control and affordable rents.
“We need low-income workers to be able to secure mortgages.
That Dáil Éireann notes that a housing emergency exists in the State
Housing is a human right as enshrined in Article 25 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights
Further notes that 15,286 homeless people, including 4,603 children, were in emergency accommodation in January 2025. The typical listed house price across the country is €346,080, 11.6% higher than a year ago and 35% higher than at the beginning of the Covid pandemic. The Dublin figure is €460,726, up 12.2% on last year
The number of second-hand houses available to buy at 9,300 is 17% lower year-on-year and the lowest recorded since January 2007
Average rent nationally is €1,956, 43% higher than before the Covid pandemic. In Dublin the figure is as high as €2,722
On 1st February 2025 fewer than 2,300 homes were available to rent, down 25% on a year previously. This compares to approximately 20,000 short-term lets on Airbnb at the same time
143,824 households are on social housing waiting lists, Housing Assistance Payments and rent supplements
Payments of €3.3 billion were made between 2019 and 2025 to landlords in respect of Housing Assistance Payments.
The failure to meet housing completion targets for 2024, down 6.7% on 2023
The Housing Commission research shows a potential requirement of 81,000 new homes per year to 2050 dependent on population and household size.
Between 2012 and 2022 the share of young adults living in their childhood bedroom in Ireland rose by 21% to reach 59%
A large cohort of families are locked out of home ownership, earning in excess of the low local authority housing limit but not enough to secure a mortgage.
The Housing Commission estimates a housing deficit of 235,000 dwellings
The Commission asserts that “only a radical strategic reset of housing policy will work” and
That “it is critical that this housing deficit is addressed through emergency action”.
Bunreacht na hÉireann provides for such emergency action in Article 43.2.2, stating that “The State, accordingly, may as occasion requires delimit by law the exercise of the said [private property] rights with a view to reconciling their exercise with the exigencies of the common good.”