THEN-FINANCE MINISTER Jack Chambers was made aware in November that the 2024 housing targets would likely not be reached, but the outgoing coalition still claimed during the general election that its targets would be exceeded.

The government had set a goal to complete 40,000 homes last year, but fell short of that target by nearly 10,000.

New documents, released to Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty under the Freedom of Information Act, show that a report was sent to Minister Chambers on 6 November 2024, detailing the completions so far that year and projecting that the 40,000 target would almost certainly be missed.

The report reads: “There were 21,634 new homes completed in the first 9 months of the year, 3.1 per cent lower than the same period in 2023.

“The outturn for [housing] completions appears to be broadly consistent with recent downward revisions to forecasts from the Central Bank, which project housing output to be similar to 2023.”

A spokesperson for Minister Chambers said today that the information “was not new” and that the report was based on projections and publications that were in the public domain.

“The CSO (Central Statistics Office) data had been published two weeks earlier and was debated in the Dáil on the day of publication,” they said.

“The Minister was already aware of these inputs from the CSO and the Central Bank.”

Similarly, as reported by the Irish Times at the weekend, then-minister for housing Darragh O’Brien was sent a forecast months before the election which also predicted that the government likely would not hit the targets.

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

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”.

The current government has committed to building 300,000 homes by the end of 2030, 45,000 of which are supposed to be completed this year.

Pearse Doherty said Minister Chambers “has been caught out” and that he “made a conscious decision to mislead the public”.

“These records completely debunk any claim this was an honest mistake on the part of the Minister,” the Donegal TD said.

“It was pure populism. Telling the public what they wanted to hear, knowing it wasn’t true.”

A spokesperson for Minister Chambers rejected Doherty’s statement.

“There were many different bodies and agencies giving varied projections on housing numbers at the time which were in the public domain,” the spokesperson said.