Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 6, 35 and 49 together.

At its core, Housing for All seeks to significantly increase the supply of quality, affordable housing. The plan comprises a suite of priority measures to transform our housing system, secure its sustainability into the future and support the delivery of more than 300,000 new homes by 2030. This will see an average of 33,000 new homes delivered for each year of the plan, rising to more than 40,000 per year by the end of the decade. Securing the level of investment required to support this delivery is critical. Accordingly, the Government is making record State funding available for housing. Some €5.1 billion is committed for 2024, which is the highest ever provision in the history of the State. The Government has introduced a range of measures to ensure a balanced delivery of homes for private ownership, social housing and private rental. Output in 2022 and 2023 shows we are clearly right on track. All key indicators, namely planning permissions, commencements and completions, continue to trend upwards, auguring well for 2025 and beyond.

Supply is increasing year on year, with a substantial uplift in the number of new homes delivered since the launch of Housing for All in 2021. The most recent completions data from the Central Statistics Office, CSO, show more than 29,700 new homes were completed in 2022, and 32,600 in 2023, which are the first two full years of Housing for All implementation. New home delivery last year was at its highest level in 15 years. It was 10% higher than in 2022 and 13% higher than the Housing for All target of 29,000 for 2023. More than half of housing delivered in the past decade has been delivered in the past four years, with 103,000 new homes built during that period. This progress is being mirrored at local level across the country. For example, the quantum of new homes delivered in Cork city and county has increased by one third since 2019. More than 3,100 new homes were delivered there in 2023, comprising 1,044 in Cork city and 2,064 in the county.

While housing supply continues to be impacted by external factors, including construction cost inflation, high interest rates and skilled labour shortages, the outlook for this year and next is equally promising. Planning permission was granted for 41,225 new homes in 2023, which was an increase of 21% on 2022 and not far off the levels seen in 2020 and 2021. At the same time, commencement activity increased significantly in 2023. The 32,801 new homes commenced was the highest annual figure for a calendar year in the past decade. The momentum has continued in 2024, with 7,056 new homes commenced in the first two months, which is a massive increase of 72% on the same period last year. Rolling 12-month commencements for the period to the end of February were more than 35,750, which is an increase of 33% on the same period ending February 2023. Indeed, rolling 12-month commencements have been above 32,800 in each of the past three months.

Initial forecasts suggest the target of 33,450 new homes for 2024 will be met. Moreover, robust planning permissions and strengthening commencement activity over the past 12 months suggest the substantial uplift in housing delivery in 2022 and 2023 can be sustained into 2025. Housing for All is clearly delivering. I am confident the funding and targeted schemes committed to under the plan will continue to support an increased supply of affordable housing across all tenures, whether social, private rented or private purchase, right across the country.

See this speech in context