Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Housing for All is the Government’s plan to increase the supply of housing to an average of 33,000 per year over the next decade. This includes the delivery of 90,000 social homes, 36,000 affordable purchase homes and 18,000 cost rental homes. Housing for All is supported by an investment package of over €4bn per annum, through an overall combination of €12bn in direct Exchequer funding, €3.5bn in funding through the Land Development Agency and €5bn funding through the Housing Finance Agency.

Under Housing for All, each local authority was required to prepare a Housing Delivery Action Plan. This Plan sets out details of both social and affordable housing delivery as appropriate over the period 2022-2026, in line with targets set under Housing for All. The Plans also include details of the locations and delivery streams for social housing schemes. The Housing Delivery Action Plans do not include additional affordable homes that will be delivered by the LDA, AHBs, First Home and via the higher Part V requirements introduced in the Affordable Housing Act 2021. The Plans have been published on local authorities’ own websites and Meath County Council’s Plan is available at this link: www.meath.ie/council/news/meath-county-council-housing-delivery-action-plan-2022-2026

My Department publishes comprehensive programme-level statistics on a quarterly basis on social housing delivery activity by local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) in each local authority, including Meath. This data is available to the end of 2023 and is published on the statistics' page of my Department’s website at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/collection/6060e-overall-social-housing-provision/

My Department also publishes the Social Housing Construction Status Report (CSR). The CSR provides details of social housing developments and their location that have been completed, are under construction or are progressing through the various stages of the design and tender processes. The most recent publication was for Quarter 4 2023. All Construction Status Reports are available at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/collection/cb885-social-housing-construction-projects-status-reports/

A version of the CSR file can also be downloaded for analysis by local authority, funding stream etc. at this link: data.gov.ie/dataset/social-housing-construction-status-report-q4-2023.

Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) has been identified as a key measure to address increased housing delivery and methods to support increased use of MMC are set out in Pathway 5 of Housing for All. The development of MMC will improve productivity in construction and increase efficiency in residential construction. The development of MMC is being led by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment which has established a MMC Leadership and Integration Group and my Department is represented on this Group.

The Housing for All Action Plan Update and Quarter 3 2022 Progress Report, which was published on 2 November, included a new action to develop a roadmap with targets for increased use of MMC in public housing. This Roadmap was published on 11 July 2023 and is available at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/publication/414cd-roadmap-for-increased-adoption-of-mmc-in-public-housing-delivery/. My Department is now working closely with the local authorities, to increase the use of MMC in social and affordable housing.

My Department continues to liaise with all local authorities, including Meath, and other delivery partners in relation to the further development of an affordable housing delivery programme that will respond effectively to all affordable housing requirements identified at a local level.

In addition, the First Home Scheme, supports first-time buyers in purchasing new houses and apartments in the private market through the use of an equity share model, similar to that employed in the Local Authority Affordable Purchase Scheme. Since September 2023, the First Home Scheme now supports those who wish to build their own home. The scheme is available nationwide and more information can be found at www.firsthomescheme.ie/

The Government’s Housing for All plan is a living plan with an in-built flexibility to review actions and targets, as needed. The plan currently sets out annual targets of overall housing delivery to 2030. A review and refresh of housing targets has commenced. The work will be underpinned by independent, peer-reviewed research by the ESRI. It will inform national and local housing targets, as well as subsets of social, affordable and private housing, and will ensure we provide enough of the right type of homes, in the right locations, to meet overall need. This work will have regard to detailed Census 2022 data published by the CSO.

Significant progress is being made to deliver the ambitious targets contained in Housing for All and my Department is working closely with the local authorities, Approved Housing Bodies and other stakeholders to accelerate the delivery of social and affordable housing.