Irish government announces plan to build 300,000 homes within five years

Proposal includes 72,000 social homes to tackle housing crisis, but critics call it old wine in a new bottle'

The Irish government has announced a long-awaited plan to tackle the country's severe housing shortage by building 300,000 new homes within five years.

It plans to boost supply by increasing construction capacity and the amount of zoned and serviced land, and to increase support for vulnerable groups, according to proposals published on Thursday.