TÁNAISTE SIMON HARRIS has said that it is his belief that former Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien supplied overly-optimistic projected housing figures “in good faith” in the lead-up to last year’s general election. 

Despite promises in 2024 that housing completion figures would reach 40,000 and far outdo figures in the Housing For All plan, the number of completed units was only 30,300. 

The government has previously defended supplying the public with incorrect figures, with the Taoiseach insisting that he and his party had not attempted to mislead the public with the inflated figures.

Micheál Martin said that the government had not knowingly given false information on the figures, saying that it was a “genuine belief at the time”.

Today, Tánaiste Simon Harris reiterated that it was his belief that O’Brien had provided the figures “in good faith”.

“I suppose the context of that information is this that in the previous number of years, targets had been exceeded, and indeed even projections and estimates by other bodies had actually been exceeded as well,” Harris said.

“It that didn’t happen last year, and that is a cause for concern that there was a stagnation in terms of progress in relation to housing supply.” Harris said he was uninterested in revisiting the “last government” and said the “new government” is working to answer questions on how housing supply can be accelerated. 

In previous years, such as 2022 and 2023, the number of housing completions in the final quarter have risen to exceed Housing For All targets. The Taoiseach had said previously that a number of private bodies had estimated that this would reoccur in 2024.

Martin has received backlash previously for relying on figures provided by private bodies rather than less optimistic figures issued by the CSO and the Central Bank.

An article by The Irish Times today states that Darragh O’Brien had received a forecast of housing completions from officials ahead of the election that stated it was unlikely that the government would reach its target by the end of Q4.

O’Brien had written a letter to coalition leaders in the days beforehand citing the figure of 40,000 completions that formed the basis of much of the government’s claims around housing during the campaign, it said.

When asked by reporters in Liverpool this week whether he had apologised to coalition leaders for the letter that said that completions were projected to reach 40,000, O’Brien said: “No, I haven’t apologised for any letter. I’ve explained the context in which the projections were given.

“We made significant progress in the last four and a half years in housing, built nearly 130,000 new homes, more new social homes than we did in 50 years, affordable homes for the first time in a generation.”

O’Brien said that he was “clear” and “didn’t shy away” from the disappointment of the outturn of housing last year, but said that the “single biggest issue” that the government are committed to “continues to be housing”.