Galway lags behind Dublin in latest new homes commencement figures
Less than 3% of all new homes where construction work commenced in May are located in Galway.
The Department of Housing has hailed the latest national figures showing construction work commenced on 2,099 new homes in the month of May.
But a breakdown of the data shows just two of these were in Galway City and only 58 were in County Galway.
Since the start of the year, building work has commenced on 135 units in Galway City, and 431 housing units in Galway County.
The total new homes commenced so far this year in Galway’s two local authority areas was 566. This represents just over 4% of the 13,120 new homes commenced across the country since January.
The figures released by the Department show that much of the new home building is concentrated in Dublin.
A total of 44% (922 homes) were in the four Dublin local authorities including Fingal County (299), followed by Dun-Laoghaire Rathdown (292), and South Dublin County (221).
Of the 2,099 homes commenced nationally in May, 916 (44%) are scheme dwellings, 713 (34%) are apartments, and 470 (22%) are for one-off units.
Housing Minister James Browne said the May figures indicated “momentum is still moving in the right direction” in terms of new build commencements.
“The Government is deploying all available measures to accelerate housing delivery, as demonstrated by this week’s launch of the Housing Infrastructure Investment Fund backed by a commitment of €1 billion euro aimed at getting in, injecting necessary funding, and resolving blockages to key building projects for the homes we need,” he said.
The new commencement figures come as the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage published its Report on Homelessness, which urged the Government to keep all options under review including an emergency ban on no fault evictions for a defined period.
The Committee recommended prioritising the best interests of children in homelessness prevention – including local authority early intervention for those at risk of homelessness, setting a minimum time in emergency accommodation, and measuring the length of time individual children spend in emergency accommodation.