Oireachtas committee told recommendations from Housing Commission not ‘meaningfully’ implemented by Government
27 June 2025
The Oireachtas committee has heard proposals put forward by the (opens in a new window)Housing Commission to address Ireland’s accommodation crisis have yet to be ‘meaningfully’ implemented by Government.
Some members of the group, which was tasked with examining Ireland’s housing system, said there had been inaction by the State in taking up the recommendations included in its report published 12 months ago calling for a new approach to the housing sector.
(opens in a new window)Professor Michelle Norris, who was a member of the Commission before it was disbanded last year, told the (opens in a new window)Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage that work on executing these recommendations had not been undertaken “in any meaningful sense”.
“I just want to state that for the record,” she said, addressing claims by the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government that it had implemented the report’s recommendations.
“It is just simply not true in any meaningful sense that the work is currently under way.”
Members of the Housing Commission said they had had limited engagement with the Government since (opens in a new window)their detailed report, which found Ireland’s housing system in need of a radical reset.
Professor Norris told the committee the commission proposed several “comprehensive reforms” including changes to the system of rent pressure zones introduced in 2016.
“We propose replacing the RPZs with the reference rent system used to regulate rents in many other European countries," she said.
“It was introduced as an emergency measure, rather than something intended to be in place long term. There are a lot of anomalies around the country… of areas not covered by the zones. There was consensus that the system needed to be reformed."
Adding: “We also felt that the pegging of rent increases at the flat rate of 2% was not a good system and discouraged supply.”
Other measures discussed by Professor Norris involved changes to how Local Authorities provide housing.
She said Ireland was “very unusual in Europe in that councils are directly involved in housing delivery”.
“The view of the commission was that there are huge impediments to increasing the social housing output. There is a finance capacity issue because the rules around giving finance to local authorities are extremely cumbersome.
“We need to get councils back in the game and we feel restructuring would address the challenges they face.
“For example, Laois and Offaly County Councils might set [a local authority housing organisation]. This would own the stock on their behalf and do new development. The rental income would go into the new organisation which would allow it to raise debt to build the housing rather than solely relying on the Department of Housing.”
By: David Kearns, Digital Journalist / Media Officer, UCD University Relations
To contact the UCD News & Content Team, email: newsdesk@ucd.ie
