merrion street

Mr. Damien English, T.D., Minister for Housing and Urban Renewal today (13 February 2017), opened the Joint National Housing Conference in Dublin Castle, co-hosted by the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government in partnership with The Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI). The event brings together on a biennial basis a wide range of policymakers, practitioners, architects, planners and other stakeholders to explore key housing issues of the day.

The theme of this year’s event is ‘Rebuilding Ireland – Delivering a Sustainable Housing Recovery’. The event will run over two days with particular focus on urban renewal a core theme of Rebuilding Ireland.

In his address, Minister English acknowledged that one of the greatest challenges facing the Government today was addressing and resolving the housing and homelessness issue. However, he also indicated he was pleased with the approach and the progress made to date under ‘Rebuilding Ireland ‘. He told the audience that he believed that the Rebuilding Ireland roadmap can, with collaboration from all stakeholders, deliver on at least 25,000 new homes every year by 2021.
Minister English went on to say that Rebuilding Ireland is ”an excellent starting point to resolve the crisis in our housing sector. Our commitment of €5.35 billion will go a long way to providing much needed social housing while the provision of a €200m infrastructure fund should unlock the potential of key sites to deliver thousands of homes for the market.”

The Minister also indicated he was heartened by the positive approach of the RIAI to the commitments in Rebuilding Ireland, especially its strong professional and public service interest in achieving its full implementation. He also commended the RIAI’s commitment to ensuring the highest quality architecture, insisting that ‘we must avoid the mistakes of the past and ensure that quality and sustainability becomes the watchwords in all we do going forward.’

Minister Simon Coveney will attend the conference tomorrow where he will outline the steps being taken now and in future years to bring about a properly functioning housing system that will be responsive to the needs of all our citizens.

About Rebuilding Ireland
Designed to accelerate housing supply in this country, Rebuilding Ireland is tackling our country’s housing shortage. This action-driven plan will result in a dramatic increase in the delivery of homes nationwide. Ambitious and imaginative in its reach, and radical in its approach, this plan will address the needs of homeless people and families in emergency accommodation, accelerate the provision of social housing, deliver more housing, utilise vacant homes and improve the rental sector.
Backed by funding of €5.55 billion, Rebuilding Ireland is designed to significantly increase the supply of social housing by 47,000, double the output of overall housing to at least 25,000 homes per annum by 2021, service all tenure types (social, private and rental), and tackle homelessness comprehensively. The wide-ranging plan seeks to address all aspects of the housing system under Five Pillars:
· Address Homelessness
· Accelerate Social Housing
· Build More Homes
· Improve the Rental Sector
· Utilise Existing Housing
Rebuilding Ireland is available on www.rebuildingireland.ie
Our most recent Quarterly Progress Report (for Q4 2016) was published 7 February and can be accessed here: http://rebuildingireland.ie/news/rebuilding-irelands-second-quarterly-progress-report/

About the RIAI
Founded in 1839, the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland supports and regulates the architectural profession and promotes the value that architecture brings to society for everyone’s benefit. We also provide support services to Architects and Architectural Technologists.

The RIAI engages with government, the professions, industry, clients and the public to promote quality in architecture; to deliver quality and sustainability in the built environment; to enrich our distinctive culture and heritage; to contribute to the competitiveness of our economy; and to improve quality of life for the people of Ireland, today and for generations to come.