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Housing Crisis in Limerick
Aran Donnelly
One of the most pressing questions relating to the current housing crisis in Ireland is how the Irish government intends to respond to and take action on the ongoing crisis facing thousands of ordinary citizens in this country. At a local level Limerick City & County Council have a number of policies to try and address the housing crisis here in Limerick.
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As a local subsidiary of the national government’s Housing for All action plan, Limerick City & County Council developed the Housing Delivery Action Plan 2022 – 2026. This report outlines the details of the Council’s current and projected targets for social and affordable housing delivery during this period. The current Action Plan is for Limerick to deliver a target of 2,693 homes in Limerick, between 2022 and 2026. 40% is via the Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) of Ireland, and 60% via Limerick City & County Council. The plan also includes the delivery of an Annual Monitoring Report each year.
LCCC also outlines targets for both buying and leasing in certain settlements, and to focus on the particular types of households needed, e.g., single households or family households. Additionally, LCCC outline their plans to reintroduce Affordable Housing Delivery via direct funding from the central government, after that policy was previously abandoned in 2011.
These key actions and policies will be taken within both the Metropolitan District and Municipal Districts of Limerick City and County.
While LCCC have outlined a comprehensive approach to tackling the ongoing accommodation crisis in Limerick, the true extent to how effective and successful this will be is yet to be fully discerned.
In November 2022, Chief Executive Officer Pat Daly of LCCC predicted that Limerick was on track to exceed its housing target for 2026, as it had already done so for 2022, with 45% of the five-year target already being approved in the first year alone.
Reports in September 2022 indicated that 723 new homes were built in Limerick between June 2021 and June 2022 (Lynch, 2022), and reports in November 2022 later indicate that 118 new homes are set to be built in Moyross and Southill over the next few months.
