Over 61,000 new houses required across Ireland, leading architect claims

Dublin, 8 November 1922 – A total of 61,468 new houses are required across Ireland to meet the current level of need.

This was the claim made by T.F Strachan, President of the Architectural Association of Ireland, in a speech to the association last night.

15,052 houses are required in the six counties, with 46,416 needed in the other 26. 21,780 of these are required in Dublin. These figures were so specific, he explained, due to the fact that practically every town has now set up a housing committee.

Mr Strachan noted that while progress towards meeting housing demand in urban areas was noticeably slow, there had been progress. ‘Bearing in mind the number of houses already under construction (about 600) and the total number possible this year under the Dáil ministry’s scheme – 2,145 – we may consider that, in spite of deplorable obstacles, the housing question is at last being tackled, though necessarily to a somewhat limited extent.’

Pathé newsreel footage of new housing being built in Clontarf in 1921

Strachan maintained that the Dáil housing scheme was better than that proposed by the British government in 1919 which unfairly diminished the state subsidy as the rent collected fell. This, he pointed out, penalised districts where wages were low. Under the provisional government’s scheme, however, houses would be provided under an inclusive cost of £750 per house, with the state granting a large part of that.

Mr Strachan also noted the high cost of building houses, which, he said, showed no apparent sign of falling.

Tenders received and approved in recent months for ‘working class houses’ varied from £480 to £668 for four-roomed houses and from £588 to £708 for five rooms.

Mr Strachan used his address to explain some reasons why houses could be provided more cheaply in England than Ireland.

There were, he argued, four reasons for the disparity: (i) higher wages in the building trade (ii) higher cost price for building materials such as bricks, slates etc (iii) higher freight on domestic and imported manufactured goods and (iv) increased agency commissions due to importation.

[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]