Politics

Varadkar warns against increasing housing supply ‘too quickly’

The government’s housing for all target falls below that recommended by IDA, the ESRI and the Housing Commission

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the state was ‘getting there’ in terms of housing supply. Picture: Niall Carson

Leo Varadkar has said he doesn’t want to repeat the Celtic Tiger era mistakes by ramping up housing supply “too quickly”.

Speaking on Ireland AM on Thursday, the taoiseach said that although house prices were 4.4 per cent above their 2007 peak, it should be taken into account that incomes are also “much higher”.

“When I first became taoiseach in 2017, we were only building 14,000 or 20,000 houses a year. That’s up to 30, ...