New minister promises affordable housing scheme

Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien has said affordable housing will be a priority for him during his tenure, saying he wants to ensure houses ranging in price from €160,000 to €250,000 will be available to people trying to get on the property ladder.

The new minister said the exact details of an affordable housing scheme are being ironed out but that it will be based on a “shared equity” basis where affordable homes will be built on State-owned land “where the State will subsume the cost of that land.”

O’Brien also stressed the need to minimise the impact of COVID-19 on building social housing, the need to focus on increasing the number of one-bed apartments as well as ensuring that Rebuilding Ireland home loan mortgages are not paused because of the pandemic.