The number of social housing units being built in Dublin has plummeted by 90 percent in the last four years.
A total of 388 new homes were made available in the city between the start of 2011 and the end of 2014, compared to 3,340 built in the four years prior to that.
The trend across the country was similar, with Cork county seeing 1163 social housing units built between 2007-2011, and just 89 in the four years since. Cork City dropped from 466 to 99, Galway from 419 to just 12, and Wexford from 559 to 44.
Nationally the number fell from 14,581 between 2007 and 2010, to 1252 between 2011 and 2014.
Fianna Fáil’s North Dublin Senator Darragh O'Brien has described the data as a real eye-opener.
“These figures expose a major cause behind the unprecedented housing emergency in north Dublin,” he said.
“The construction and completion of social housing units has all but stopped under this Government,” he said, adding that this has come at a time when social housing lists “have sky rocketed out of control.”
The drop off in Dublin, from 3,340 to 338, is “a matter of grave concern,” he said, adding that there is “no excuse for the large-scale abandonment of essential housing projects given the surge in the number of Dublin families who are in desperate need of a home.”
Senator O’Brien pointed to what sees as root causes of the housing crisis – “ill-advised policies ... combined with lack of interest” in tackling the issue.
“The gross inaction over the mortgage and personal debt crisis and the decision to allow banks to call all the shots has led to a huge increase in home repossessions.
“In addition to this, an increasing number of people are finding themselves in a situation where they don’t qualify for a mortgage and they cannot afford escalating rents. At best, these people are living with family and at worst they simply have nowhere to go.
“The government cannot hide behind excuses anymore,” he said.
“The fact is that they took the eye off the ball, ignored the warnings from all quarters and allowed this crisis to develop. The action we are seeing now is too little too late.”
