Meanwhile, our political correspondent, Ellen Coyne, has reported on how local authorities are being told to put long-term homeless families with children to the top of the queue for social housing<\/a>, as part of a concerted Government effort to reduce the number of children in emergency accommodation. She outlines how senior Government figures now believe levels of child homelessness<\/a> will be how the public judges its record on the housing crisis. <\/p>\n It is not hard to see why this might be the case. According to the most recent figures, there were 5,238 homeless children in the Republic at the end of September. Charities, agencies, and professional bodies have given the housing strategy a cautious welcome, but Opposition parties have trenchantly criticised it, arguing it is a repackaged version of previous plans. <\/p>\n Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> housing spokesman Eoin \u00d3 Broin<\/a> described it as \u201cthe emperor with no clothes\u201d and accused the Government of \u201cbrazenly trying to rebrand unaffordable private homes as somehow affordable\u201d. As Marie O\u2019Halloran reports, <\/a>Opposition parties criticised the decision by the Government to abolish annual targets. Labour\u2019s Conor Sheehan said it would make it difficult to measure the plan\u2019s progress. <\/p>\n Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin has defended this decision, while stating that data will still be available every year to show \u201cwhat has actually been built\u201d. <\/p>\n The Government has launched its new housing plan, called Delivering Homes, Building Communities. Video: Ronan McGreevy <\/p>\n \u201cEven when we had the annual targets on the [previous plan] Housing for All, and when we exceeded those targets, the response was, \u2018well, we should have set the targets higher\u2019, that they weren\u2019t high enough. The bottom line is, we need 300,000 homes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n People seeking a home \u2013 and the Government parties \u2013 are pinning their hopes on this plan delivering as intended.<\/p>\n One thing is certain, as the next general election \u2013 due in 2029 \u2013 approaches, there will be much focus on exactly how many of the 300,000 homes promised for the end of the following year have materialised.<\/p>\n Bust up<\/p>\n US president Donald Trump versus the BBC was not on many people\u2019s bingo cards for Trump\u2019s second administration, but then how many of the extraordinary things that have emanated from the White House this year were? <\/p>\n The BBC has apologised him for editing a speech to make it look like he had advocated violence but rejected the president\u2019s demand for compensation. He threatened legal action against the broadcaster for its editing of a speech he made in 2021, on the day his supporters overran the Capitol Building in Washington. <\/p>\n The BBC admitted on Monday the editing of the speech was an \u201cerror of judgment\u201d. Trump\u2019s lawyers said the BBC must retract its documentary by November 14th or face a lawsuit for \u201cno less\u201d than $1 billion (\u20ac860 million). The BBC has said it \u201csincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited\u201d, but it also added: \u201cWe strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n That\u2019s all very well but does any of this affect me?<\/p>\n It is stating the obvious, but if you\u2019re someone living in the box room of your family home saving to get on the property ladder; a tenant struggling with sky-high rents, or a homeless person living in emergency accommodation hoping to secure a home; the Government\u2019s new housing plan \u2013 and its success or otherwise \u2013 is crucial.<\/p>\n Banana skin<\/p>\n Fianna F\u00e1il politicians are waiting on tenterhooks for the completion of the review into its diabolical presidential election bid. <\/p>\n It was originally supposed to be finished by this week, with proposals on how to avoid a repeat of the botched effort to get former Dublin GAA manager Jim Gavin elected due last Wednesday. <\/p>\n There have been renewed rumblings about the future of Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin\u2019s leadership of the party, given his role in backing Mr Gavin as his preferred candidate \u2013 though there is no immediately obvious successor to Martin as leader pulling strings behind the scenes or encouraging rebels. <\/p>\n Fianna F\u00e1il TDs and Senators learned at their parliamentary party meeting on Wednesday that the review will now not be completed until early December<\/a>. Regardless of the review\u2019s outcome, its delivery will likely be a tricky time for the party leader.<\/p>\n Winners and losers<\/p>\n The winner this week is Catherine Connolly, who was inaugurated as Ireland\u2019s tenth president on Tuesday after her stunning election victory last month. The left-wing Independent politician gave every indication she will be an outspoken holder of the office, saying she will use her seven years as president to be a \u201ccatalyst for change<\/a>\u201d. <\/p>\n British prime minister Keir Starmer is this week\u2019s loser, having found himself grappling with a controversy over media briefings from allies suggesting there were fears of a leadership coup from within the Labour Party. <\/p>\n President Connolly, speaking during a visit to a Dublin gaelscoil, has vowed to advance the Irish language during her presidency. Video: Alan Betson <\/p>\n He sought to draw a line under the matter by insisting he had been reassured that the briefing \u201cdidn\u2019t come from Downing Street\u201d. <\/p>\n The prime minister gathered his senior staff to stress that briefings against cabinet ministers were \u201cunacceptable\u201d after apologising to health secretary Wes Streeting \u2013 who was identified as being supposedly behind a possible heave \u2013 for what had happened. Starmer\u2019s spokesperson also said the prime minister accepted assurances that Number 10 staff had not briefed <\/a>against Mr Streeting and that he stood by his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, originally from Co Cork. All-in-all another bad week for Starmer.<\/p>\n The big read<\/p>\n In Saturday\u2019s paper, political editor Pat Leahy looks at the uneasy calm within Fianna F\u00e1il as the party awaits the report on its calamitous presidential election campaign.<\/p>\n Hear, here<\/p>\n On Wednesday\u2019s Inside Politics podcast, presenter Hugh Linehan and guests explore what is wrong with the State\u2019s housing and planning system. UCD academic Prof Orla Hegarty and Se\u00e1n Keyes, the executive director of the think tank Progress Ireland, join him. They debate if tech entrepreneur John Collison\u2019s view <\/a>of the Republic\u2019s housing problems are correct or naive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Story of the week It is finally here. The Coalition\u2019s long-promised new housing plan was unveiled on Thursday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[15049,1523,61,60,43,25402],"class_list":["post-139439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-dail-eireann","tag-government","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-politics-fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1761819953215-e257fabc-be80-4e46-b364-7af889213cbd.jpeg\"\/)
What is wrong with Ireland\u2019s housing and planning system?<\/p>\n