The National Development Plan may have “underestimated what is needed” to deal with challenges around housing, health and climate change.
An ESRI report also states the Government “faces a dilemma” when it comes to investment in public infrastructure.
The Economic and Social Research Institute argues while the 2018 NDP, and the revised version in 2021, set out an ambitious programme of investment based on estimated future needs, population growth is exceeding expectations.
An idea in the report to tackle the shortage of housing is a new tax on commercial building, such as office blocks, hotels and car parks, to redirect more money into home building.
ESRI Director Alan Barrett says the Government faces a “dilemma” over what to fund and when, due to a chronic shortage of construction workers and inflation risks.
He adds the “latest information which informs the scale of investment needed suggests that the earlier level of ambition may have underestimated what is needed.”
When it comes to housing, the report says “existing targets for housing supply might understate need, given the stronger than expected increase in the population seen in the recent release of results from Census 2022.”
The ESRI adds the Government should “think creatively.”
