Simon Harris says election should not be an ‘auction’ on housing targets

Taoiseach Simon Harris has said the election should not become an “auction” on housing targets where political parties try to “outbid” each other.

The Fine Gael leader said that the debate should be about how to scale up house building in Ireland and what proportion of the homes are state-funded.

Mr Harris also said the Government would exceed its target to build 33,450 new homes this year, 9,300 of which are expected to be social and 6,400 affordable.

When asked about whether close to 40,000 homes would be built by the end of the year, Mr Harris said that that figure was in a letter sent to him by Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien.

Figures published on Thursday suggested that 21,664 new dwellings have been completed in the first nine months of this year, down on 22,521 completions last year.

Sinn Féin’s finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty has said it is “delusional” to say that 19,000 more homes would be built in the next 12 weeks and the 40,000 figure was “not…