Housing

Ireland needs 50,000 homes in 2025 to stay attractive, IDA chair says

Feargal O’Rourke says Ireland’s housing targets were not high enough amid fears over impact of accommodation crisis on foreign direct investment

Feargal O’Rourke, IDA chairperson: ‘What’s coming back is that actually those targets aren’t high enough. We need maybe 50,000 next year’

Ireland’s housing targets must be raised to 50,000 homes a year if the country is to remain attractive as a location for foreign direct investment, the chair of IDA Ireland has warned.

Feargal O’Rourke, who recently took up his role at the state’s inward investment agency, said on Wednesday that the country needed to raise the scale of its housebuilding campaign amid fears that the accommodation crisis could prompt multinationals to look elsewhere for investment.