Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

-----I can attest to the fact that in my constituency of Cork South-West, hundreds of couples have been able to avail of this much-needed scheme. They simply would not have been able to afford their own homes without it.

That said, over the next couple of minutes I will set out the Government's countermotion and our response to the motion before us. Housing is a cross-sectoral societal challenge that has a real impact on people’s lives. I reassert this Government’s commitment to addressing the housing crisis by implementing Housing for All and the suite of measures outlined in the programme for Government. Housing for All is a multi-annual plan to accelerate and increase the delivery of new homes. Since its publication in September 2021, almost 107,000 homes have been added to the national housing stock through new builds, completion of historical unfinished housing developments and vacant properties brought back to use.

While much still needs to be done, we have also achieved a lot. The step-change in delivery in recent years has helped many households achieve autonomy in the housing market. Last year’s dip in delivery is disappointing but supply continues to grow in the longer term. From a stagnant 20,000 or so new homes per year, we are now on a firm upward trajectory. Almost 92,500 new homes were built between 2022 and 2024, up almost 50% on the three previous years, and a robust pipeline is in place to support a renewed uptick in supply this year and next year.

Some 60,000 residential commencement notices were received in 2024 on the back of the Government's water connection and development levy waivers. While it is hard to predict with certainty when these developments will be completed, there is undoubtedly more work on-site. Feedback suggests it is more a matter of when, rather than if, these notices will translate to new homes. We do not underestimate the scale of the task ahead. Building new homes remains a key priority for this Government. To this end, we have committed to delivering 300,000 new homes by 2030, rising to 60,000 homes per year by the end of that period. Our focus now is to meet both new and existing need. We believe the new targets are ambitious and credible and provide an appropriate pathway to deliver on this objective. Importantly, the target of 300,000 homes is not a ceiling. In this regard, we will adopt an agile approach to revisit the targets again in 2027 if, reflecting demand and growing industry capacity, we need different targets for 2028 and subsequent years.

Scaling up to 60,000 homes a year and building on that figure further thereafter will be an enormous challenge. We will rise to this challenge. We will do so by, among other things, prioritising investment in infrastructure development and establishing a new office of strategic housing and infrastructure delivery to co-ordinate homebuilding and investment in the servicing of zoned lands and remove barriers that stifle supply. We will continue to grow construction sector capacity, tackling barriers in construction careers, promoting career opportunities and making construction more attractive to all. The additional capacity will establish a platform from which to deliver the Housing Commission's recommendation of addressing unmet demand within ten years.

We will continue to diversify sources of investment. The level of investment required in the long term cannot be solely the responsibility of the State. We also require a considerable level of private investment, including appropriate institutional capital which is essential for the delivery of apartments and private rented homes.

We will engage with domestic lenders, ensuring the banking sector is maximising its lending capacity to support the development of new housing nationwide. We will develop new financing sources, especially for brownfield sites and small builders, supported by Home Building Finance Ireland, the Housing Finance Agency and domestic banks, as well as State support of equity investment. The Land Development Agency will provide 12,900 homes over the lifetime of Housing for All. The Government recently recapitalised the agency to ensure it is best placed to deliver the homes required and will do so again, if needed, in the coming years.

The Labour Party motion calls for a reverse in "the increasing centralisation of housing responsibilities by devolving more power to local authorities."

In reality, key decisions on delivering public housing are vested in local authorities. While my Department sets out targets in line with national strategy and provides overall design guidance for capital funding, local authorities, including elected councillors, make the decisions on specific public housing delivery in their areas.

The motion also calls for a single set of standardised design guidelines for social homes. Standard designs have been in place for all new social housing developments since 2022. I confirm they were rolled out to all local authorities several years ago and are a central part of the current social housing programme, which has resulted in the highest level of delivery of new social housing build for many decades.

The motion further calls for a "single stage assessment and approval process". The reality is that this process already applies to over 80% of new social housing delivery. We are already examining how to take this a step further. As per the commitment in the programme for Government to reduce delays and red tape, my Department is examining the scope to extend the single stage approval to all social housing projects with standardised designs.

Affordability is a key focus of Housing for All, which introduced many measures to support access to affordable housing and assist those aspiring to buy their own home to do so, including the help-to-buy scheme, the local authority affordable purchase scheme, the local authority home loan, the ready-to-build scheme and the first home shared equity scheme. We continue to deliver the first affordable homes in a generation and we are going from strength to strength, with affordable housing supports provided in 2024 likely to significantly exceed the 2023 outturn. The first home scheme in particular has proven to be a key support for first-time buyers. The Government is committed to working with the banks to expand the scheme to first-time buyers of second-hand homes, extend it to 2030 and increase the targets in keeping with the increase in starter home targets. These matters are being examined by the Department and will help boost home ownership further and support younger people seeking autonomy in the housing market.

In the rental market, we have committed to continuing support for renters and landlords, including measures to protect renters and landlords from abusive practices through enhanced enforcement powers for the Residential Tenancies Board. While we will continue to vindicate tenant protections, and successive recent Governments have significantly strengthened these rights, they must continue to be balanced with a landlord’s constitutionally protected property rights.

Supporting households experiencing homelessness remains a priority for the programme for Government and it reaffirms Ireland’s commitment to working to eradicate homelessness by 2030. Budget 2025 allocates more than €300 million to this end, up €61 million on 2024. Additionally, €12 million in capital funding is being provided for supported emergency accommodation for families and individuals experiencing homelessness. We have also committed to creating 2,000 housing first tenancies to target long-term homelessness.

My Department is working closely with local authorities and their service delivery partners to support households to exit homelessness to a tenancy, that is, tenancies in local authority and approved housing body properties or in the private rental market supported by the housing assistance payment, as well as the tenant in situscheme. While the Government measures are having an effect, increasing the supply of social, affordable and private housing and accommodation remains the ultimate solution to addressing the challenge in the longer term.

This Government is dedicated to ensuring the continued success of Housing for All and implementing the far-ranging commitments in the programme for Government. In its countermotion, the Government highlights the substantial progress made to date and how we will build on this progress. We have achieved much since the plan was published and we will continue to work tirelessly over the Government's term to increase supply, address the affordability challenges and fix the housing system for our children, grandchildren and generations to come.

See this speech in context