Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy. I am happy to take this matter on behalf of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy James Browne. The Deputy made a valid point, and I thank him for raising this matter.

On 25 April 2023, the Government approved additional measures under the Housing for All action plan to incentivise the activation of increased housing supply and to help reduce housing construction costs, including the introduction of temporary time-limited arrangements for the waiving of local authority section 48 development contributions and the refunding of Uisce Éireann water and wastewater connection charges. The Government recognised that further measures needed to be put in place to help address cost and viability with a view to incentivising the activation of a pipeline of new housing commencements and assisting the delivery of supply as quickly as possible. The waiver scheme applied to all permitted residential development including multi-unit developments, self-build houses and one-off houses, as well as student accommodation and sheltered housing.

The scheme initially applied for one year to all permitted residential development that commenced on site between 25 April 2023, which was the date of the Government decision approving the measure, and 24 April 2024, and that are completed no later than 31 December 2025. On 23 April 2024, the Government approved an extension for the waiving of local authority section 48 development contributions in respect of residential developments commenced not later than 31 December 2024 and the refunding of Uisce Éireann water and wastewater connection charges in respect of residential development commenced not later than 30 September 2024. In April 2024, the final date for the completion of development works on qualifying houses under the schemes was extended from 31 December 2025 to 31 December 2026. There are no plans to extend or reintroduce the waiver scheme.

The waiver of local authority development contributions and the refund of Uisce Éireann connection charges directly reduce the upfront cost of construction. These savings, depending on location, represent a meaningful portion of soft costs in budgets. A total of 69,060 homes were commenced in 2024 as against 26,957 in 2022, representing an increase of 156% in comparison with 2022. This is the highest number of commencements on record since the compilation of data on annual residential commencements began to be recorded in 2015. It is likely that the waiver schemes contributed to the increasing level of housing starts post April 2023 in light of the timing of the introduction of those schemes. A certain proportion of planning permissions for housing development that were not being activated have now largely commenced due to this scheme. The time-limited nature of the waiver scheme provided a clear and urgent incentive for developers to act quickly. As already stated, there are no plans to extend the scheme any further.

See this speech in context