Housing shortage is State’s top concern – Harris

Taoiseach Simon Harris has said the State’s housing deficit was his “biggest concern bar none”.
Addressing the US-Ireland economic summit at the US ambassador’s residence in the Phoenix Park in Dublin, Mr Harris said that if Ireland was to continue to attract and retain investment, it must urgently overcome infrastructural deficits in energy, water, transport and housing.
“These deficits, most of which have emerged due to an extraordinary decade of economic and population growth, do now run the risk of being a drag on competitiveness,” he said.
Overcoming them “isn’t just a goal, it’s not just something that would be nice to do, it is an economic and societal necessity,” Mr Harris said.
However he noted that enhancing infrastructure was of little use “if a worker isn’t able to find a house and isn’t able to find a house that is affordable”.
“I know this is among the biggest concerns for you … let me be clear, it is my biggest concern bar none,” he told delegates which included the heads of many US companies operating in Ireland.
A recent American Chamber of Commerce survey indicated that housing remained a top concern for almost 40 per cent of US multinationals operating here.
Highlighting a significant pickup in housing commencements this year – there were 37,500 housing starts in the first eight months of 2024, double the number commenced in the same period last year, Mr Harris said there were “genuine signs for encouragement in terms of the pipeline of housing supply”.
He also described the recently passed Planning Act as a “once-in-a-generation reform and overhaul” of Irish planning laws designed to streamline the system.
“Legal challenges and delays should be a last resort, not a normal feature of most projects,” he said.
In his address, Mr Harris insisted the challenge for the next government was to establish a department solely dedicated to infrastructure delivery. “This is too small a country to have a fragmented approach to the delivery of mega capital projects,” he said.
“We need to build up expertise and capacity in the public service to cut through bureaucracy and other things that stifle the delivery of these projects,” he said.
The summit brought together leaders from across business, government and state agencies with the aim of exploring “opportunities, challenges, and new technologies that will shape the future of US-Ireland relationship”.
Mr Harris hailed the robust two-way trade and investment relationship between the two countries which was now worth over $1 trillion.
Ireland is clearly an attractive destination for US companies looking to establish a foothold in Europe, Mr Harris said, noting there 970 US companies invested in Ireland, employing 210,000 people directly.
He also noted that the commercial relationship between Ireland and America was now a “two-way street” with Ireland now the seventh largest source of foreign direct investment (FDI) into the US with 700 Irish companies employment 110,000 people in the US.