Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta O'Callaghan for his question.

Increased supply is key to meeting our housing needs and addressing the challenges in the housing market. That is why we brought forward, as a Government, Housing for All, which is the single biggest intervention in housing any Government has made in the history of the State, and rightly so. That needed to happen. Among the challenges are our priority of homelessness, ensuring that people can buy their own home at an affordable rate and reducing social housing waiting lists. Output for 2022, for which we have the full-year figure, and 2023, for which we do not yet have the full-year figure for social and affordable housing, clearly shows we are on the right track. All the housing indicators - commencements, completions and planning permissions - are trending upwards.

There has been a substantial uplift in the number of new homes delivered since the launch of Housing for All in 2021. The most recent completions data published by the Central Statistics Office show that some 29,726 and 32,695 new homes were completed in 2022 and 2023, respectively. That is just short of 30,000 in 2022, which was more than 5,000 ahead of our target, and 32,695 last year, so we exceeded our target in both years. New home delivery last year was at its highest level in 15 years, some 10% higher than in 2022 and 13% higher than the Housing for All target we set ourselves for 2023.

While housing supply continues to be impacted by external factors, including construction cost inflation, which we have to watch, high interest rates, and labour and capacity to deliver, the outlook for this year is good and that for next year is equally promising.

The number of dwellings granted planning permission in the first nine months of last year was up 13% on the same period in the previous year, 2022. Some 30,000 planning permissions were granted in that period, the second highest granted for the January-to-September period in over ten years, and surpassed only by the 32,835 granted for the same period in 2020. We therefore have a really good pipeline. I think people will see, not just in Dublin but also in our major cities and in towns and villages across the country, the developments that are happening.

Planning approvals in quarter 3 of 2023, the most recent data I have on planning permission, were up 43% year on year, from 6,700-odd units in quarter 3 of 2022 to 9,600 units in quarter 3 of 2023. The number of houses granted planning permission rose by more than 10% in quarter 3 of 2023 when compared with the same period in 2022.

While planning permissions are one element, commencements are also really important. They are the indicators for work actually starting on developments on the ground. The 12-month commencements for the period to the end of December numbered almost 33,000. That is an increase of 21% year on year, with a steady month-on-month increase in the rolling total since mid-2022. Commencements for last year reached the highest annual figure for any calendar year in the past decade.

Initial forecasts suggest that the target we have set ourselves this year, 33,450, will be met this year and will be exceeded again.

I am under no illusion as to the continued challenge we face. We have to continue to increase that supply across all tenures. What leads me to be optimistic about this is the first-time buyer segment. About 600 first-time buyers are drawing down their mortgages now, buying homes because they are using the first home scheme, the equity scheme which this Government brought forward. They continue to use at an increased rate the help-to-buy grant, worth up to €30,000 of their own money.

I have not even touched on vacancy because the vacancy figures are not included in the reply. I might come back to them in a supplementary reply.

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