I welcome the Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, launched today, which aims to make housing available for everyone in Cork who is seeking a home.
“Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, Simon Coveney published ‘Rebuilding Ireland – an Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness’, following Government approval of this comprehensive and ambitious plan.” He was joined by An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal Donohoe.
“The Plan provides a multi-stranded, action-oriented approach to achieving many of the Government’s key housing objectives, as set down in the Programme for Government.” It aims to:
- Significantly increase the supply of social housing in Cork, with 47,000 units delivered nationally by 2021 and an investment of €5.35 billion
- Ensure more homes are built in Cork and to double the output of overall housing from the current levels, to at least 25,000 per annum by 2020
- To tackle homelessness in Cork in a comprehensive manner
“This whole-of-Government Plan will be overseen by a dedicated Cabinet Committee, chaired by An Taoiseach. While the immediate priority is housing homeless families, many of whom are currently living in hotels, all aspects of the housing system in Cork are addressed within the Plan. This means that young people in Cork looking to rent or buy, families looking to trade up or down, students who need good accommodation, older people, people with a disability and others are all encompassed within the Plan and its 84 time-bound actions.”
The Plan addresses all aspects of the housing system in Cork, under five Pillars:
- Address Homelessness
- Accelerate Social Housing
- Build More Homes
- Improve the Rental sector, and
- Utilise Existing Housing.
“This Action Plan underpins Fine Gael’s commitment to end the housing shortage in Cork and to tackle homelessness. Providing homes for everyone in Cork and around the country is this Government’s number one priority. Fine Gael is committed to a range of measures to reverse the chronic undersupply of new homes, which is making new home purchase and rents in Cork increasingly unaffordable and driving more people into homelessness. I am committed to ensuring that as a result of this plan everyone in Cork will have access to quality and affordable housing. Today’s launch is just our starting point. We must now move from words to actions. The actions, funding and structures are now in place to ensure we make early and very substantial progress on the journey to fixing Corks broken housing sector.”