Tánaiste: Planning process to blame for delay in social housing
The Tánaiste Joan Burton says the process of building new social housing is taking longer than she would like.
Last year the Government announced that almost €4bn would be invested in the construction of 35,000 social housing units.
There are 130,000 households currently on local authority lists waiting for a home.
It comes as homeless charities call for immediate action to alleviate the housing crisis, as a homeless man was found dead in a lane on Dublin city centre yesterday morning.
The Minister for Social Protection said the planning application process is slowing down construction of much needed houses.
Ms Burton said: "It's a lot slower, to be honest, to get off the ground than most of us would like.
"If we could also look at a suggestion by Father Peter McVerry that we may need to speed up the planning process, because we have sites available in Dublin for housing, but the planning process can be very slow, followed by the tender process
"So it can take a long time to actually get houses up on sites."
