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Must ReadThe Morning Lead
'He's burning up goodwill': Pressure grows on Housing Minister over recent changes
One housing charity director warned James Browne is ‘not bringing anyone with him’ on recent key announcements, and questioned what his strategy is.
PRESSURE IS GROWING on Housing Minister James Browne over changes he has announced affecting home building, with a growing number of key figures in the sector publicly criticising the Fianna Fáil TD over his recent policy moves.
Last week saw Browne declare plans to drastically reduce the number of homes that are bought by councils and housing charities. There were also reports that he may be seeking to cap the number of homes delivered each year by Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs).
Although the minister has indicated that these changes are to help improve the chances of a private homebuyer buy a home rather than having to compete with a state-backed body or council, private and publicly-funded homebuilders have argued this misunderstands how many private housing developments are financed.
They say that new housing estates and apartments are reliant on a portion of their homes being sold to councils or AHBs to help fund any homes being built in the first place. Without this, it’s feared that no homes may be built in various developments across the country.
A number of figures in the sector have voiced concern about the government’s plans.
Mike Allen of homelessness charity Focus Ireland said Browne was “burning up goodwill” with key groups in the sector and was “not bringing anyone with him” on his recent changes.
Allen told The Journal:
If there is a strategy, there is no effective communication of it to anybody – but there is no evidence there is a strategy. There are various things being announced that are hard to fathom… there’s a sense of momentum being lost.
He added that Browne is running out of time to come up with a new plan to ease homelessness numbers, which jumped to a record high of 17,885 people in August.
Eibhlin O’Connor, chief commercial officer of Clúid, one of Ireland’s largest AHBs, said the recent turnkey changes had sent a “jitter” through the industry, as she said the sector awaited clarity from the department over the coming week on how the changes would work.
It is not just the housing sector: Kate English, chief economist at Deloitte Ireland told RTÉ that the attempt to curb AHB housing is “premature and risks diminishing housing delivery overall”.
There is also concern from private builders that the changes will require heavy investment in councils’ planning departments to ensure they can meet the new requirements and design housing projects when the policy takes effect later next year.
O’Connor said the changes “could slow” building down in the short term, a view supported by other figures who fear a slump in construction after 2027.
“It’s the lack of clarity is the problem,” O’Connor told The Journal, adding that developers who partner with councils and AHBs are “not 100% confident” of fresh projects under the plans proposed by the government.
Browne’s tenure as housing minister has up until recently been marked by changes to apartments and the wider private rental market, in a bid to entice institutional investors to invest in fresh homes in Dublin and other cities.
However, his recent changes have sparked alarm across significant parts of the housing sector.
Pressure is now on the minister to reverse course on the turnkey changes and the reported cap of 5,000 homes for the AHB sector, which was first covered by the Sunday Independent last weekend.
Department denial
In response to the report about an apparent cap on the homes to be delivered by AHBs, the Department of Housing issued a statement denying that any policy had been introduced.
“Contrary to recent reports, at no stage has the Department set, directed or mandated that approved housing bodies would cap or plateau their social and affordable housing delivery at 5,000 homes per annum and nor is such a cap policy,” the department said.
Allen, from Focus Ireland, questioned this denial, contending that “reflection is needed if everyone in the sector thinks that you’re saying” home building will be capped.
“Why is everything being communicated so poorly? People aren’t saying this out of malice or to put the minister down. We want the minister to succeed.”
Allen said it was “discouraging” to see “barriers” arise over building targets, while O’Connor of Clúid said she was “disappointed” to hear of reports of a “cap” at a social housing conference in Cork last week.
“There was a lot of discussion at that conference around where the sector is going, and I suppose there’s a hope from government that we will deliver more affordable and cost-rental homes,” O’Connor said, referring to the scheme that is supposed to deliver cheaper rents in pricey cities but which has begun to run aground due to financial problems this year.
“But again, for the sector to deliver more, we actually need the funding. We need to know what funding is available. In 2027, for example, what funding is available for cost-rental?”
She urged for a plan to reduce the more than €1 billion currently being spent on private rental subsidies such as the Housing Assistance Payment (Hap), by developing a strategy to move some of the estimated 56,000 households relying on Hap into more secure, cheaper accommodation provided by councils and AHBs.
O’Connor argued that this would free up badly needed funds for AHBs to deliver on programmes such as cost-rental accommodation.
Allen agreed that money spent on Hap is “intrinsically wasted,” but – signifying the complexity of any housing strategy – he said there was a need to first house the more than 17,000 people currently without a home.
“It was sort of justifiable as a short-term measure coming out of recession and not building houses for ten years. There really needs to be a strategy now,” Allen said.
Sinn Féin’s Eoin Ó Broin, who has spent a decade in the Dáil shadowing a series of housing ministers, claimed that Browne was showing that the government have “nothing else left to give and the closet is completely bare” of policy options.
“There is serious tinkering around the edges [with] ill-informed decisions poorly advised and executed, but with the consequence of disruption of the pipeline of projects we so badly need for building social, affordable and private homes.”
There was better news for the government this week when new figures were published showing the number of new homes completed in the third quarter of this year rose by 10.4% compared to the same period in 2025.
Ó Broin has argued the increase was not enough showed the government was still on course to miss its long-term goal of seeing 300,000 homes built between 2025 and 2030.
‘There are bits missing’
Focus Ireland’s director of advocacy claimed the recent government budget summed up the difficulties facing Browne.
Before the budget, it was widely thought that he would acquire funding to change Hap to reflect the fact that its rates have not changed in a decade, despite huge inflation in the rental sector.
But when budget day came, no change emerged to the payment. Allen blamed the Department of Public Expenditure (Dper), whose Minister Jack Chambers had told fellow Cabinet colleagues that he intended to tightly control any spending increases.
So he’s losing battles against Dper, but Dper aren’t coming up with any ideas; they’re just knocking down his ideas. So you’re in this situation where it doesn’t add up and it can’t add up because there are bits missing.
The charity director further claimed that Browne faces a “vicious circle” where he risks not making progress because he’s failing to win over Cabinet colleagues, and vice versa.
“It’s like what Eoghan Murphy faced,” Allen said, referring to the doomed former Fine Gael housing minister who later claimed in a book about his experiences that he faced a lack of backing from his party colleagues.
Minister’s response
When contacted for comment, a spokesperson for the Minister again denied that there is a cap of 5,000 homes per year set to be placed on AHBs, but that he would meet with the Housing Alliance – a collective of AHB organisations.
“We are due to meet with the Housing Alliance soon regarding improved housing delivery and there will be an opportunity then for any representative who is confused about the current situation to seek clarification,” the spokesperson said.
They said that “supporting people experiencing homelessness into secure tenancies and homes is the Government and Minister James Browne’s most urgent priority”, adding that increased housing supply is what is needed.
“The Government continues to make record investment in new social homes. Over 9,000 social homes were delivered last year – the highest number built in any given year since the foundation of the state,” the spokesperson said.
“The Government is also fully committed to delivering affordable housing – whether to purchase or rent – at scale. From a standing start, more than 6,000 cost-rental homes have now been delivered, and the pipeline continues to build. During 2025 alone, 43 cost-rental projects were approved which will deliver more than 3,300 cost-rental units by 2029.”
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