Eight additional housing staff for Waterford to assist meeting delivery targets - Senator Cummins

Senator John Cummins has welcomed the approval by government of eight additional technical and administrative staff for Waterford City and County Council to assist in the delivery of social and affordable housing in line with the Governments 'Housing for All' policy.

In total 211 posts have been approved nationally.

Senator Cummins is a member of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

Seantor Cummins has engaged with Minister O’Brien, Minister Burke and the County and City Managers Association over several months on the need for additional posts to be advertised and filled across the country.

He said it was particularly needed in light of the increased demands being placed on Local Authorities to deliver ambitious targets for both social and affordable housing.

Seantor Cummins said: "Housing for All commits to the delivery of 300,000 homes over the lifetime of the plan (to the end of 2030) which includes 90,000 social homes, 36,000 affordable purchase homes, 18,000 cost rental homes and 156,000 private homes for sale or rent.

"The plan is underpinned by a record €4 billion per year budget and the sanctioning and recruitment of these posts is essential to enable councils like Waterford to deliver on the ambition I have for housing delivery across our city and county.

“As a government we are committed to strengthening the capacity of Local Authorities to initiate, design, plan, develop and manage housing projects.

"This requires the resourcing of housing delivery teams and the posts being announced today include a wide range of positions from engineers to quantity surveyors and architects with provision also made for the necessary administrative resources."

Senator Cummins said Fine Gael and this government are not hung up on ideology.

"We don’t care who builds houses or how houses are delivered, be it through Local Authorities, Approved Housing Bodies, the Land Development Agency, Co-Operative Housing Trusts, Public-Private Partnerships’ or Private Builders so long as they get built." he added. 

He said: "Far too many non-government politicians are opposing and attempting to block housing developments across the country, and they should be called out at every opportunity."