Politicians need to "take a long hard look at themselves" if the amount of social housing planned is going to be completed.

That is according to Housing Spokesperson for the Social Democrats, Cian O'Callaghan TD, who says COVID-19 delays are not the only culprit of the lack of progress on the housing plan.

It comes as the Independent reports that cabinet ministers have been warned that the government is missing key housing targets.

It is not forecast to deliver the number of properties needed to address the long-running property supply problem. 

"Bottlenecks"

"I think it goes to the heart of why we're not building enough houses in this country", Deputy O'Callaghan told Newstalk Breakfast.

He said there are a myriad of "bottlenecks" stopping developments.

"Some of it goes back to the COVID-19 shutdowns - they're still having a knock on effect - but there's way more to it than that."

"There's all sorts of bottlenecks, like the lack of availability of labour is a problem ... and building inflation."

The uniqueness of each development is also delaying things, according to Deputy O'Callaghan.

"I've heard counselors in particular giving out about this need to go out to tender on absolutely everything."

"Every time there's a housing development, there is objections."

The private meeting of the Cabinet Committee on housing was told that the housing for all policy needs to be urgently revised and additional budget funding for the 4 billion plan may be required if it is to meet its objectives.

In Deputy O'Callaghan's view, constant objections to such developments by the public and by politicians need to stop.

"I think politicians, including politicians on the left, have to take a long hard look at themselves because every time there's a housing development, there is objections", he said.

"Some of those objections are legitimate. Some of the schemes are not up to scratch, but literally every time there's a development there is a race among politicians to object to it.

He labelled it "nimbyism".

"Nimbyism"

Deputy O'Callaghan has seen the delays in his own constituency, saying one development is taking "an eternity" to complete".

"We were told by March or April and it's still being built now, and I suspect it's because of some of the issues, particularly lack of availability of labor."

"I think the plan is to build 9000 new social houses in 2022 and 90,000 by 2030. We need them built that is absolutely essential."

"We need to tackle these shortcomings."

Main image shows Cian O'Callaghan TD on the plinth outside Leinster House. Picture by: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews