Galway City Council has land for housing, demand for housing, but there is no Government plan to build on scale, a former Mayor of Galway City has claimed.
Cllr Niall McNelis said that Ireland’s housing crisis is not an accident, but the predictable result of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael’s failed policies, and their refusal to treat housing as the basic human right it is.
“Their coming together as a conglomerate bloc desperately clinging to power should be a warning to those of us who want to see an end to the housing catastrophe,” he said.
“For years, successive governments have promised the world and delivered excuses. They pledged 40,000 homes in 2024 but built barely 30,000. They talk endlessly about “record completions” while homelessness rises month after month — over 16,000 people, including more than 5,000 children, without a secure place to live. It is a national disgrace; with international ramifications.
“Here in Galway, we see the human cost of those failures every day. Rents in Knocknacarra and Salthill are out of reach for ordinary families. Young people on decent wages are locked out of both renting and buying. Emergency accommodation is full, and local authorities are forced to fight tooth and nail just to get basic housing projects approved,”Cllr McNelis added.
He said that this crisis was made by government choices.
“Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael sold off public land, outsourced building to developers, and then claimed shock when prices soared. Their “Housing for All” plan has been heavy on press releases but light on delivery. For all the slogans, the result is simple: people can’t afford to live in their own communities.
“Labour’s housing spokesperson, Conor Sheehan TD, has been one of the few voices in the Dáil telling that truth plainly. He’s right that the private rental market is fundamentally broken — a system that rewards investors while punishing tenants. He’s also right to point out that housing policy discriminates against single people and key workers. In Galway, teachers, nurses, and care workers are told they earn too much for social housing but too little to buy. That is both absurd and unjust,” added Cllr McNelis.
He said that the alternative that the Labour Party is putting forward is clear.
“The State must once again take the lead in building homes — public housing on public land, delivered by local authorities, not left to the mercy of speculative developers. We need long-term cost-rental homes, genuine rent regulation linked to incomes, and a national drive to bring vacant and derelict properties back into use. No more talk. The most sustainable home is one already built!
“These are not radical ideas. They are common sense. Ireland did this before, and we can do it again — if we have the political will.
“In Galway, we need that same ambition. Our council has land. We have demand. What we lack is a government willing to empower local authorities to build at scale. Instead, we face endless red tape and piecemeal schemes that tinker around the edges,” he said, adding that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have had more than a decade to fix this crisis.
“They have failed. Every missed target, every family in emergency accommodation, every young person forced to emigrate because they can’t afford rent — that is their record.
“It’s time to back that vision and finally end the era of broken promises. Ireland doesn’t need more press conferences — it needs homes,” he concluded.
