James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)

I thank Deputy Murphy for raising this important question on whether housing delivery is at risk because of challenges regarding the electricity grid. I am committed to building more homes in Ireland and to ensuring the housing needs of our society and economy are met. The Government’s revised housing targets, aiming for over 300,000 new homes by 2030, set a pathway to deliver on this objective.

While scaling up capacity to deliver 300,000 new homes by 2030 will be an enormous challenge, this can be facilitated, inter alia, through appropriate Government support to increase the critical infrastructural capacity needed to enable housing delivery in the coming years. The Government is investing record levels of capital funding in critical infrastructure and will continue to do so under the national development plan for the period 2025 to 2035, to be finalised by July of this year.

Developers are guaranteed a connection by ESB Networks. It is worth noting that, over the past four years, ESB Networks has connected over 147,000 homes and businesses to the distribution network. For future connections, ESB Networks is advising developers to give as much notice of their requirements as possible.

In response to increased demand, the operators have prepared business plans that propose significantly increased investment in the electricity grid for the period 2026 to 2030 for consideration by the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities under its sixth price review. I look forward to the conclusion of the review, which will provide a clear framework for investment in the electricity grid for the next five-year period.

In addition, the new housing activation office in my Department will engage with and align key stakeholders, including those responsible for the electricity grid, to ensure barriers to housing development are addressed in a co-ordinated way.

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