James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following: "recognises that:

— Housing for All, sets out an ambitious multi-annual programme that seeks to deliver more than 300,000 new homes by 2030;

— record levels of investment are being provided for the delivery of housing in 2025, with overall capital funding now available of almost €6.8 billion;

— this provision includes €450 million to support the delivery of 3,000 additional social, affordable and cost rental homes in the period 2025 – 2027; and €265 million to allow for a significant programme of acquisitions in 2025 for priority categories of need;

— the capital provision for 2025 is supplemented by a further €1.65 billion in current funding to address housing needs;

— over 36,700 social homes have been delivered under Housing for All to Quarter 4 2024; in 2023, nearly 12,000 social homes were delivered, including 8,110 new-build social homes, the highest level of delivery of new-build social housing since 1975, and in 2024, 10,595 social homes were delivered including 7,871 new builds, 1,501 acquisitions and 1,223 leasing units;

— nearly 13,000 affordable housing supports have been delivered since the launch of Housing for All to December 2024 by Approved Housing Bodies (AHB), local authorities and the Land Development Agency (LDA), alongside schemes such as the First Home Scheme (FHS) and the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant;

— over 7,100 affordable housing supports were delivered in 2024, the highest yearly delivery to date, exceeding the year's target of 6,400;

— over €1.3 billion has been approved under the Cost Rental Equity Loan (CREL) since launch, to assist in the delivery of over 6,000 Cost Rental homes across 17 local authority areas, with over 2,000 homes delivered under CREL to end 2024; and

— on 13th May, Government approved an additional €30 million commitment to the FHS, bringing the total State commitment for the FHS to €370 million, more than 6,700 buyers have been approved to date under the FHS and more than 3,300 homes have been bought using the FHS to the end of Quarter 1 2025;

further recognises that:

— while housing supply has increased significantly in recent years, much more needs to be achieved;

— the measures introduced under Housing for All have helped establish a solid platform to 'scale-up' delivery of housing in the short-term and secure a sustainable level of supply that will help us meet demand;

— the measures committed to in the Programme for Government, including a new housing plan building on the successes of Housing for All, will help us meet the enormous challenge of delivering more than 300,000 new homes by 2030;

— the Government's new national housing plan will incorporate pragmatic actions to boost housing activity in the short-term coupled with strategic deliverables to drive comprehensive systemic change and subsequent increase in supply into the long-term;

— there has been record levels of investment in infrastructure under the current National Development Plan (NDP) for the period 2021 to 2030;

— new capital investments in infrastructure, particularly to support housing targets, are being considered in the context of the ongoing review of the NDP; and

— on 30th April, 2025, Dáil Éireann approved the Revised National Planning Framework (RNPF), which provides the basis for the review and updating of Regional Spatial and Economic Strategies and local authority development plans to reflect critical matters such as updated housing figures or projected jobs growth, including through the zoning of land for residential, employment and a range of other purposes;

acknowledges that:

— to see the revised NPF translated to a local basis as urgently as possible, local authorities have been advised to start the process of reviewing and updating their development plans to align with the revised NPF;

— the Planning and Development Act 2024, which is being commenced on a phased basis over the next 18 months, represents a radical reform of the planning system and will set, for example, new statutory timelines for decision-making and streamline judicial review processes, which will help to reduce the delays that may be constraining housing supply;

— the Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2025, to be enacted before this summer recess, will ensure sufficient time is given to activate planning permissions for much needed housing;

— under the Planning and Development Act 2024, the new Urban Development Zones (UDZ) will enable further housing development and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage has signed an order that will enable local authorities to identify suitable sites for UDZs, and for the LDA and Regional Assemblies to bring appropriate sites to the attention of local authorities and the Minister, with work to begin as soon as possible;

— a review of the Exempted Development provisions is underway that will provide further options for the provision of housing, with a public consultation commenced this month and updated regulations to come into force later this year;

— Part 17 of the Planning and Development Act 2024 will also be commenced shortly to enable the establishment of An Coimisiún Pleanála to replace An Bord Pleanála; and

— a series of reforms have been progressed to support a well-resourced planning system, including the implementation of the Ministerial Action Plan on Planning Resources, which will strengthen the planning system and support the timely delivery of critical infrastructure and housing;

further acknowledges that:

— Government continues to support local authorities in the delivery of housing programmes, with almost €4.8 billion provided to the authorities in 2024 and this will increase further in 2025;

— more than 250 additional capital posts in local authorities nationally are being funded by the Department to support social housing delivery; in addition, over 140 professional/technical and administrative posts dedicated to delivering affordable housing are being funded by the Department in local authorities to strengthen their capacity to initiate, design, plan, develop and manage housing projects;

— the Government is progressing a number of structured and coordinated initiatives to address vacancy and dereliction, including the review of the Derelict Sites Act 1990, the Town Centre First Policy Approach and the implementation of the Planning and Development Act 2024 and development of related secondary legislation, including the current review of exempted development provisions;

— the Planning and Development Regulations provide for an exemption from the need to obtain planning permission for the change of use of certain vacant commercial buildings, including vacant above ground floor premises, to residential use such as 'above shop' living for up to nine units, subject to conditions and limitations, the most recent figures show that since 2018, local authorities have received 1,457 notifications relating to the provision of 3,429 new homes nationwide through use of this specific exemption;

— a €150 million fund to end long-term vacancy and dereliction in towns and cities has been provided under the Urban Regeneration Development Fund (URDF);

— by the end of Quarter 1 2025, over 8,652 Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant approvals had issued already, and €112 million has been paid out to refurbish almost 2,100 homes;

— the Compulsory Purchase Order Activation Programme, launched in April 2023, requires a proactive and systematic approach by local authorities to bring vacant and derelict properties back into use, this includes the active use of compulsory purchase powers by local authorities, with URDF Call 3 and other funding supports available for such purchases; and

— the vacancy rate of 3.5 per cent as reported by the Quarter 4 2024 Geo-Directory report is the lowest recorded vacancy rate since 2013;

affirms Government efforts to:

— support the housing needs of specific groups through a range of measures and supports, including a targeted second-hand social housing acquisitions programme, which responds to the needs of the most vulnerable, and which is supported by increasing the 2025 budget for the programme from the €60 million available under Housing for All to €325 million;

— address the housing options available for older people, as committed to in the Programme for Government, including by mandating local authorities to find suitable sites for housing specifically designed for older adults, ensuring accessible options within local communities; supporting AHBs in developing and managing senior housing with on-site support services; and reviewing and standardising the older persons housing financial contribution scheme;

— support older people and those with disabilities to continue living independently - Budget 2025 provided an Exchequer capital provision of €99.5 million for the Housing Adaptation Grants for Older People and Disabled People with every local authority receiving an increase in their capital allocation; on 9th June, €23 million funding was announced for local authorities to carry out adaptations, extensions and other improvements to their existing social housing stock;

— fund Traveller-specific accommodation which has been fully drawn-down by local authorities over the past five years from 2020 to 2024, resulting in investment of over €100 million capital investment in Traveller-specific accommodation;

— support Housing First which was expanded significantly under Housing for All; over 860 tenancies were created under the current plan up to the end of Quarter 1 2025 and 1,060 individuals were in a Housing First tenancy; and

— increase the availability of suitable, financially accessible student accommodation as a key policy priority in the new Student Accommodation Strategy, being developed by the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, which places affordability and equity at its core;

further affirms Government efforts to:

— work with all stakeholders to continue accelerating housing supply across all tenures and to deliver social, affordable and cost rental homes at scale and improve the availability and affordability of homes;

— support individuals and families who may be struggling to purchase a home, through a range of schemes, including the Help to Buy, FHS, Local Authority Affordable Purchase Scheme and the Local Authority Home Loan;

— sustain tenant in-situ acquisitions into 2025 as a clear indication of Government's commitment to preventing homelessness for Housing Assistance Payment and Rental Accommodation Scheme tenants who have been served a 'no fault' Notice of Termination;

— support the rental sector through new policy measures approved by Government on 10th June that will modify rent controls with the aim of strengthening tenancy protections and security of tenure, while encouraging greater private investment in the rental market;

— provide stronger protections and greater certainty for the rental sector by extending rent controls nationally, to protect all tenants from high rent increases, rent increases will be linked to inflation, whilst retaining the cap on permissible rent inflation at two per cent with limited exceptions; and

— to provide greater security of tenure by introducing legislative changes to significantly restrict 'no fault evictions' for smaller landlords (three or fewer tenancies) and to prohibit them for larger landlords, these changes will further enhance the current provision of tenancies of unlimited duration with the introduction of rolling tenancies of a minimum duration of six years with smaller landlords; and

notes that:

— a Housing Activation Office in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is being established to identify and seek to address barriers to the delivery of public infrastructure projects needed to enable housing development at local level, through the alignment of funding and coordination of infrastructure providers;

— an Infrastructure Division has been established in the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, that will lead a process of infrastructure reform; and

— the Government is investing record levels of capital funding in critical infrastructure, including in the areas of water and energy, and will continue to do so under the NDP for the period 2025 to 2035, to be finalised by end of July.".

I am thankful for the opportunity to come before the House today to introduce the Government's amendment to the Sinn Féin motion and to outline the progress that has been made to date by the Government and the Housing for All programme. I will set out a few things to begin with to address some of the points that have been made. The first thing I did when I became Minister was to increase the capital spend by €725 million. When I became Minister, the funding that was available for the tenant in situ scheme was €60 million. I increased it to €325 million. Sinn Féin's own policy on the tenant in situ scheme is to slash it to 800 units per year over the coming years, a fact its Members conveniently keep leaving out. Listening to their speeches, all of them are very good at observing, criticising and personalising politics with lots of clichés, but we heard no solutions-----

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