Announced last year, Ireland’s ‘Housing for All’ plan estimates that Ireland needs an additional 33,000 homes to be constructed each year until 2030 in order to meet the goals outlined in the National Planning Framework. These goals include 6,000 affordable homes per year for purchasing or renting by local authorities, housing bodies, and other strategic partners.

One of the key goals of the plan is to increase social housing. In order to oversee these goals are met trans-governmentally, the Programme for Government was tasked with establishing a Commission on Housing. The Housing Commission’s overarching mandate is to examine issues in Ireland regarding tenure, standards of living, housing sustainability, and people’s quality of life.

First meeting

On January 12, 2022, the Commission met for the first time to examine these long term-housing policy issues. Chaired by the former Chief Executive Officer of the Housing Agency, John O’Connor, the meeting of the Commission fulfils the commitment made in the Housing for All plan with the twelve different commissioners discussing the following:

• Maintaining a housing supply that meets social, environmental, and economic objectives
• The ability of the construction industry to meet the 2030 objectives
• The cost and quality of housing, and the drivers of these
• Affordability in the private rental sector and for first-time buyers
• The challenges of producing sustainable, one-off, rural housing
• The growing need for social housing regulation
• The role Approved Housing Bodies will play in meeting the Plan’s goals
• A referendum on housing

The Commission’s findings on these issues are to be compiled into a report by the end of July 2023. Minister O’Brien, who attended the first meeting, says he is looking forward to receiving the Commission’s work “…and ensuring it informs long-term housing policy”. He went on to thank the new members and wished the commission well with its work.

 Now established, the Housing Commission is set to report regularly to the Government.

Housing referendum One of the central tasks of the Commission is to examine the wording on a proposed future referendum on the Irish citizen’s right to housing. As a commitment by the Programme for Government, the referendum will draw out Irish attitudes towards housing and whether property should remain treated as an asset or would be better understood contextually as a home.

 Early polling taken last year indicated a slim majority believe a right to housing should be enshrined into the Irish constitution. However, with the drafting of the referendum still to be finalised by the Housing Commission, the debate is far from over. As it stands, the Irish Constitution’s article 43 states a person has a natural right to private property, and the State cannot pass a law attempting to abolish private ownership, guided by the principles of social justice.

Prior to the report’s completion, the Housing Commission plans on consulting with external experts and stakeholders who can play important roles in building consensus regarding housing issues.