Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for the opportunity to provide an update on social and affordable housing provision. I am taking this on behalf of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, who sends his apologies but who has provided me with the reply to the Deputy's question.

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 out to 2030. The focus of the social housing programme will be to increase the number of new builds with a target to reach delivery of more than 9,500 new-build homes on average every year for the next five years to 2026.

In September 2021, the Minister issued targets for new-build social housing to all local authorities for the period 2022 to 2026. Delivery of affordable new housing is also a key objective across the affordable housing delivery streams. In March of this year, five-year affordable purchase and cost rental delivery targets were issued to those local authorities with an identified and significant need for affordable housing provision.

One of the actions in Housing for All requires local authorities to develop and submit housing delivery action plans to include details of their social and affordable housing delivery. In the action plans, local authorities provide information on the location where housing will be delivered and the planned number of homes to be delivered in each year. The plans also include information on other delivery streams, including delivery by local authorities, approved housing bodies and the Land Development Agency, LDA. All local authorities submitted initial housing delivery action plans to the Minister in December and there has been further engagement between local authorities and the Department to ensure all plans are consistent with social and affordable targets, in addition to the range of policies set out in Housing for All.

This year sees the beginning of delivery under the range of affordable housing programmes, representing the first State-supported affordable housing and delivery in a decade. Households are already enjoying the benefits of the new cost rental tenancies, with over 200 homes already tenanted and more schemes opening between now and the end of the year.

The first local authority affordable purchase homes in south Dublin will have their new owners next month and in Cork city, we will be advertising shortly affordable homes for purchase in two schemes. In addition, the first home shared equity schemes will launch next week and will be funded to support 8,000 home purchases by 2026 by affordability constrained first-time buyers and some households starting again under a fresh start principle. I hope that addresses some of the questions the Deputy asked. I do not believe the Minister would have been able to address the issue raised regarding the Central Bank in his statement.

See this speech in context