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AONTÚ LEADER PEADAR Tóibín today outlined three policies that his party would adopt in an effort to resolve the housing crisis, coming off the back of the party’s Ard Fheis yesterday.
The Ard Fheis was held in Gormanstown, Co Meath yesterday, and was shown live on RTÉ in a signifier of the party’s growth since its establishment in 2019. The party now has two TDs in Tóibín and Paul Lawless, one senator in Sarah O’Reilly, and six councillors.
Among the topics discussed at the event were immigration, housing, and government spending.
Today, Tóibín reiterated several of his views. He called for the housing crisis to be declared an emergency, an approach similar to other opposition parties. This would allow the government to push through policies for the public good that would not typically be permitted, such as bypassing some planning laws and objections.
The housing target for this year is 41,000 homes, as set out in the programme for government. It became clear earlier this year that it was incredibly unlikely that the government would manage to meet its self-imposed housing target.
Last year, the government missed out on the 40,000 homes then Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien said it was aiming for, and Housing for All plan’s target of 33,450.
The government has also signalled imminent change to rent pressure zones (RPZs). The rent caps are due to expire at the end of this year.
If Aontú were to enter government, it would keep rent pressure zones as well as scrapping VAT on housing materials, including construction of homes, Tóibín said.
“We would actually lower the VAT in terms of building homes. At the moment, you have an incredible situation where Micheál Martin is actually talking about getting rid of rent caps to families who are paying two thousand euros [a month].
“We will keep the rent pressure zones and make it cheaper to build homes by getting rid of VAT. It is absolutely wrong that you have VAT in terms of building those homes,” Tóibín said.
In February, the party leader released figures provided by the government that showed that the government had collected close to €3 billion in VAT on housing materials and construction services in 2024, the highest amount ever collected in a single year.
In 2015, the figure was set at €1.2m.
“We’d make it far easier to draw down the refurbishment grants for the 168,000 empty homes. The speed that the government is going in at the moment, in terms of those means it’s going to take 115 years before those homes can be brought back into use,” Tóibín said.
Operation Shamrock was also discussed. The Aontú initiative would see Irish construction workers in Canada and Australia offered a €10,000 grant to return home and work in the sector for four years.
“We would use current construction exemption regulation to build homes for those in a far speeder time than it takes at the moment.”
On other issues, party delegates yesterday voted to adopt party motions including a ban on allowing anyone who has purposefully destroyed their documents to enter the country, and a ban of “the introduction of Sharia law” or “community courts of any religion”.
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