Housing minister accused of 'spin' and of 'repackaging' housing figures to suit agenda

THE GOVERNMENT HAS been accused of trying to put a positive spin on the latest affordable home figures, which the opposition says are “woefully inadequate”. 

Housing Minister James Browne announced today that the government delivered 4,699 “starter home supports” in the first six months of this year. It said this was 57% more than in the same period last year, when it provided 2,980. 

The government has begun using the term “starter home supports” when referring to: 

• The Starter Home Purchase Scheme
• Cost Rental homes
• The First Home Scheme
• The Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant

In the first half of 2026, 565 homes were delivered under the Starter Home Purchase Scheme, a 65% increase on the same period in 2025 (343 homes).

Since the scheme was introduced in 2022, more than 3,000 Starter Homes for Purchase have been delivered through local authorities, Approved Housing Bodies, and the Land Development Agency.

Meanwhile, the number of new Cost Rental homes doubled in the first half of this year, with 1,399 delivered up to the end of June – a 111% increase on the same period in 2025 (664 homes).

Elsewhere, some 996 First Home Scheme supports were drawn down in the first half of 2026, 56% more than in the same period in 2025 (639 supports drawn down).

In the first half of the year, 1,739 grants were paid under the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant, a 30% increase on the 1,334 homes brought back into use during the same period in 2025.

Responding to these figures, opposition parties have argued that they are not enough to make a dent in the housing crisis. 

Labour’s housing spokesperson, TD Conor Sheehan, called on Browne to invest directly in building affordable homes. 

Sheehan said: “Six months. Just 565 new affordable purchase homes across the country. Last year, the Government delivered just 935 and missed its own target by 55%. For families and workers trying to save a deposit while paying high rents, that means another year with too few homes they can afford to buy.”

Sheehan accused the government of “repackaging” the housing figures by labelling them “starter home supports” and said that even on the government’s own broader measure, it’s falling short.

“Minister Browne’s housing plan targets an average of 15,000 starter home supports a year until 2030. Government delivered just 4,700 in the first half of this year. At that pace, it will fall well short of a target that already understates how many affordable homes people need.”

He said Labour has proposed to put €6 billion from the Apple tax windfall into the Land Development Agency and turn it into a State Construction Company that can build directly on public land.

“Minister Browne should put the Apple windfall to work and publish a county-by-county timetable for building affordable homes. We need a renewed sense of urgency from Government on this,” he said. 

Meanwhile, Social Democrats housing spokesperson TD Rory Hearne said the minister was “dressing up his failures”.

“Despite the government trying to put a positive spin on its latest affordable housing figures today, the numbers are pathetic and will hardly make a dent in the level of need,” he said.

“These figures are woefully inadequate… It is also misleading for the government to be including grants for vacant and derelict properties, which account for 37 per cent of the starter home support figures published today (1,739 out of 4,700).

“Not only is there no affordability element here for people struggling to put a roof over their heads, but one in four of these grants (28 per cent) goes to landlords,” he said.

Hearne added: “The lacklustre figures announced by Minister Browne today come in the same week as Eurostat’s latest house price-to-income ratio report. It found that between 2015 and 2025, the growth in house prices relative to income in Ireland was estimated at 14.4 per cent, more than double the EU average.”

Browne said the schemes are making owning a home “far more accessible” but that he wants to see more progress. 

“We have to drive on and expand access to affordable housing options in 2026… I expect this strong performance to continue across all Starter Home schemes,” he said.