Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for her question. To set out the context on housing supply, it has significantly increased since 2020, with 130,000 new homes delivered in that period. Everyone on the Government benches and across the House was disappointed with the final numbers for 2024, which were less than what we expected. However, it is not true to say that we missed our Housing for All targets. The overall net position over a period of three years shows 29,000, 32,000 and 30,300 units delivered, a combined total that exceeded the overall target over three years.

We need to look to the future to drive significant supply of homes across our economy. The volume of homes built in the past five years represents the highest delivery for many years. Notwithstanding the short-term fluctuation in delivery, the current delivery pipeline is very strong. Work commenced on 60,000 new homes in 2024, an increase of 84% compared to 2023. It equates to work starting on an average of 239 new homes every working day of the year. We are determined that the uplift in supply of recent years must be sustained, with a longer term upward trend maintained. That is why the outgoing Government set new housing targets of over 300,000 new homes over a series of years.

I want to be clear in my role as Minister for public expenditure. We agreed to a review of the national development plan to accelerate infrastructure delivery in our economy in water, energy and transport to unlock future supply and intensify the level of housing delivery in our economy. When we see the capital outworking of that, I expect we will see increased allocations for housing and an increased focus in the State's role in housing supply. If we are to deliver 50,000 new homes per year, we are going to need more private investment to do that work and complement the State's role in housing. We all need to be honest about that.

The State has a central role, but we need to ensure that we unlock future private investment to drive increased supply across our economy. That means examining all of the policy options that are available to Government to ensure that we drive housing supply and increase affordability for young people in order to give them an opportunity to buy and own their own home.

There is a severe shortage of supply for renters in our economy. As I said in response to Deputy Ó Broin, we have said we will conduct a review with the housing agency. There is no predetermined outcome to that review. It will be evidence-based and examine how we protect renters and increase the supply and development of rental accommodation in our economy. That is a necessity to ensure that people who want to rent a home today and future renters in our economy have the opportunity to go on to rent. If you go on to daft.ie or any other sites, it is very difficult in terms of the supply of rental accommodation. We need more homes for the rental supply in our economy.

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