John Cummins (Waterford, Fine Gael)

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;

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

— over 36,700 social homes have been delivered under Housing for All to Q4 2024, and, 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, local authorities, and the Land Development Agency (LDA), alongside schemes, such as the First Home Scheme and the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant; and

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

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 2025, 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 a subsequent increase in supply into the long-term; and

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

acknowledges that:

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

— our water networks require ongoing and sustained investment, to bring these up to the required standard of treatment, to deal with population growth, and to adapt to the impacts of climate change;

— this Government is delivering a sustainable funding path to further enhance the ongoing significant improvements in our public water and wastewater services;

— record funding has been allocated between 2020 and 2024, and this will continue under the NDP 2026-2030, to prioritise water and wastewater infrastructure, and to deliver the capacity to facilitate housing development in our towns and villages;

— Uisce Éireann has ramped up capital delivery for water services and infrastructure, from €300 million in 2014, to roughly €1.3 billion in 2024, and in 2025, the Exchequer will provide just over €2.2 billion in funding to Uisce Éireann;

— in 2024, Uisce Éireann issued 4,252 connections agreements associated with 41,169 housing units;

— the Programme for Government 2025 commits to introduce statutory timelines for pre-connections, water and wastewater, and energy connection agreements, to ensure large developments can proceed without delay, and to establish a new procedure for large developments, above 100 units, where a developer can meet local authority planners and Uisce Éireann on site, to resolve issues at pre-planning stage;

— Ireland is currently experiencing high demand for new electrical connections driven by population growth, industrial development and accelerated electrification targets;

— over the last four years, ESB Networks has connected over 147,000 homes and businesses to the distribution network;

— in response to increased demand the electricity system operators, ESB Networks and EirGrid, have prepared business plans that propose significantly increased investment in the electricity grid for the period 2026-2030, and the Government looks forward to the conclusion of the Sixth Price Review by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, which will provide a clear framework for investment in the electricity grid;

— with regard to the provision of water services, energy and roads infrastructure, Uisce Éireann, ESB and individual road authorities, have statutory responsibility for the planning, delivery and maintenance of infrastructure at local levels, and the scope, prioritisation and progression of individual projects is a matter for the respective statutory body, and is subject to obtaining the necessary consents; and

— the Housing Activation Office (HAO) being established in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, will engage and align stakeholders, including local authorities, utility and infrastructure providers, industry and others, to ensure that infrastructure blockages are addressed in a coordinated way, in order to enable housing development;

further acknowledges that:

— significant legislative and system level reform of the planning system is progressing;

— on 30th April, 2025, Dáil Éireann approved the revised National Planning Framework (NPF), which provides the basis for the review and updating of the Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy 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;

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

— 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;

— the Government is prioritising the commencement of the Planning and Development Act 2024, on a phased basis as outlined in the Programme for Government, and that the Act represents the most comprehensive review of planning legislation since 2000, and will reform and streamline the planning process, and support timely decision making for housing and strategic infrastructure projects;

— Part 17 of the Planning and Development Act 2024 was commenced on 18th June, to enable the establishment of An Coimisiún Pleanála to replace An Bord Pleanála;

— under the Planning and Development Act 2024, the new Urban Development Zones provisions will enable the identification by local authorities of suitable locations for further housing development at scale, and the ability for the LDA and Regional Assemblies to bring appropriate sites to the attention of local authorities and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, with work to begin as soon as possible;

— 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; and

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

notes that:

— Section 90 of the recently enacted Planning and Development Act 2024, provides for a pre-application consultation with planning authorities;

— the Planning and Development Act 2024, allows a member of the public to make a submission on a planning application as part of the public participation process, and the Act of 2024 will introduce a new procedure to deal with spurious planning submissions and appeals, and a submission in relation to a planning application, an appeal or a judicial review must be accompanied by a statutory declaration stating that the submission, appeal or judicial review is not being done for the purposes of delaying a development or for receiving a payment, and also, penalties were introduced in respect of anyone making a false declaration;

— updated Rural Housing Guidelines are currently being prepared by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, which will set out relevant planning criteria to be applied in local authority development plans for rural housing, based on the high-level policy framework set by the NPF;

— in May, 2021, the Government introduced a series of measures to prevent the bulk buying of houses and duplexes by a single buyer, and to increase home ownership;

— overall, since May, 2021, a total estimate of over 50,000 houses and duplex units received planning permission, with conditions restricting the bulk purchasing or multiple sales to a single purchaser;

— a higher stamp duty on the cumulative purchase of 10 or more residential properties, excluding apartments, was increased to 15 per cent in Budget 2025; and

— the Programme for Government 2025 commits to maintaining the owner occupier guarantee in planning regulations for houses and duplexes, and keeping the stamp duty surcharges under review, to ensure they prohibit bulk purchases;

further notes that:

— the 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;

— the recently established Local Democracy Taskforce will:

— develop proposals to rebalance the power between elected councillors and the executive, including identifying opportunities to better use the existing, or specify more reserved powers/functions, and mandatory oversight responsibilities for councillors, either at plenary or municipal district level, particularly in respect of budgetary oversight;

— explore mechanisms to ensure that the policy decisions of local authority executives are transparent, and that executives must consult with and be accountable to the council for those policy decisions;

— consider ways for local authorities to increase fiscal autonomy, through the amount of own resources, including wider variation options for Local Property Tax, by reviewing existing revenue-raising and debt management options, and matched funding requirements and new/alternative revenue raising powers; and

— examine ways to ensure that local priorities for central Government grant funding are decided upon by the council;

— a concerted effort is being made to expand capacity on existing apprenticeship programmes, and Budget 2025 has seen the single largest investment in core apprenticeship funding since the formation of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, in 2020, an increase of 83 per cent to €77.4 million, and this investment will support the continued growth of apprenticeship training capacity, with 6,319 registering to join construction and construction related programmes in 2024, a rise from 4,463 in 2019;

— the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science works with sectoral partners, such as SOLAS, the National Construction Training Centre, Skillnet Ireland, and Education and Training Boards (ETBs), to increase skills supply through the existing network of skills provision across the tertiary system;

— the number of enrolments in Nearly Zero Energy Building/Retrofit training courses, has increased steadily from 363 when the first centre opened in 2020, to 7,166 enrolments in 2024, and there has been a cumulative total of over 15,000 enrolments across the Centres of Excellence;

— the Careers in Construction Action Plan, outlines structural, promotional, and upskilling initiatives to tackle barriers to construction careers, promote career opportunities and make construction jobs more attractive to women; and

— in addition, the Future Building initiative operates jointly between the Department of Social Protection and ETBs Ireland, and works to match job seekers with training and employment opportunities in the sector, and Skillnet Ireland and CitA launched the MMC Accelerate platform in May, 2025, which includes information on training opportunities around the country; and

recognises that:

— 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 review of the NDP for the period 2025 to 2035, to be finalised by end July;

— a HAO 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 agreed to an ambitious expansion to the remit of the LDA to support the delivery of housing, including unlocking key strategic public lands for urban brownfield delivery, through infrastructure investment, and to support local authorities, the HAO and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, in master planning and infrastructure provision in new towns and districts.".

I thank Deputies Fitzmaurice, Collins, O’Donoghue and O’Flynn for their motion and for instigating an important debate. I believe in productive debates that are solutions orientated and I acknowledge many of the items in the motion before us. It is in that spirit of taking on board those items, while acknowledging the work that is going on within the Government, that I will make my comments here and address some of the items that have been raised in the Independent Ireland motion.

Everything we seek to do as a Government is to build on the progress made through Housing for All. It is the Government’s number one priority to ensure we use every means available to us to increase the supply of homes across the country. That includes using our local authorities, our approved housing bodies, AHBs, the Land Development Agency and the private sector. Many ideological debates happen in this Chamber every day, and the people out there do not really care for those ideological debates. They want homes and they do not care whether it is local authority, approved housing body, the LDA or the private sector that delivers those homes. They just want those homes. That is what we are about as a Government.

I acknowledge the disappointing dip we saw last year in the number of homes built due to the 23% reduction in apartment completions. However, it is important to reflect on the progress we have seen in recent years. Back in 2012 and 2013, fewer than 5,000 homes were delivered. In 2022 and 2023, it was 30,000 and 32,000, respectively. Of course we need to do more; I am not for one second suggesting we are doing enough. More than 92,000 homes have been delivered in recent years but it has to grow to 50,000 a year on average. Over 48,000 social homes have been delivered in the last five years. That is the highest rate since the 1970s, which was before I was born. There is also a very strong pipeline of over 24,000 social homes at various stages of design build that will be delivered over the coming years.

Housing for All has provided for the introduction of a number of new affordable housing supports enabling the delivery of significant numbers of affordable homes, both new builds and those that have been brought back into use. Nearly 13,000 affordable housing supports were delivered since the launch of Housing for All to December 2024 by AHBs, local authorities and the LDA, alongside schemes such as the first-home scheme, the local authority affordable purchase scheme and the vacant property refurbishment grant, which a number of Deputies have mentioned during the debate. Over 7,100 affordable supports were provided last year, which was the highest year of delivery to date. The Government has introduced a range of measures in recent months that will ensure we are in a position to continue with the largest social and affordable housing programme in this country, investing nearly €7 billion of taxpayers' money.

On the planning matters that were raised in the motion, the revised national planning framework provides the basis for the review of the regional economic and spatial strategies and the local authority development plans. Given the urgent need to ensure that we have updated housing requirements incorporated into the planning system as quickly as possible to address housing need and demand, local authorities will be required to vary their current development plans in order to ensure we have sufficient zoning of land to deliver the homes we need. We will be informing local authorities very shortly as to their housing growth requirements to ensure that what we approved in this Chamber on the NPF is translated into local authority development plans as quickly as possible.

On the planning system, we have progressed a number of reforms to streamline a well-resourced planning system. I sat on the Oireachtas joint committee on housing with the Deputies sitting opposite me for years when we went through that Bill, which was the third largest piece of legislation in the history of the State, and a comprehensive review of our planning system, which will ensure we have a streamlined planning process into the future. That Act is being commenced on a phased basis and does represent a radical reform of our planning system. As part of the implementation of the Planning and Development Act 2024, the new urban development zones will enable strategically placed housing developments with the order already signed, which will enable local authorities to identify suitable sites for urban development zones, UDZs, in the context of their variation process. Furthermore, the planning and development Bill 2025, which was approved by Cabinet for priority drafting on 27 May, will ensure sufficient time is given to activate planning permissions for much-needed housing across the country. It is intended to have the Bill enacted before the summer recess.

Deputies opposite have also raised exempted development regulations. The Department is undertaking a review of these provisions that will provide further options for the provision of housing. A public consultation is expected to commence next week on those. Part 17 of the Planning and Development Act 2024, which was commenced on 18 June, enables the establishment of An Coimisiún Pleanála to replace An Bord Pleanála. All these measures are about bringing forward supply and ensuring we do not lose out on important developments through delays or because of developments timing out. It is about ensuring we have timely decision-making across our planning system so that we can introduce certainty for developers to allow them to get on and do what they do best, which is building homes.

The motion calls for further reform of the planning process including governance, implementation and reporting structures. Again, we have made significant changes in this regard. Section 90 of the recently enacted Planning and Development Act 2024 provides for a pre-application and consultation with planning authorities. It also allows a member of the public to make submissions on a planning application as part of the public participation process. The Act will also introduce a new procedure to deal with spurious planning submissions and appeals. A submission in relation to a planning application, appeal or judicial review must be accompanied by a statutory declaration stating that the submission, appeal or judicial review is not being done for the purpose of delaying a development or receiving a payment. Penalties are being introduced in respect of anyone making a false declaration.

The motion also refers to rural housing guidelines, which are under review by the Department. There is a need to ensure they are carefully calibrated to support the development of rural one-off housing while also ensuring appropriate safeguards are in place. These changes will improve transparency, timeliness and accessibility in our planning process.

The motion calls for changes to the performance and functions of local authorities. I refer Deputies to the local democracy task force, which I have established. It will have its first meeting tomorrow in the Custom House. It will develop proposals to rebalance the power between elected councillors and the executive. It will also explore mechanisms to ensure the policy decisions of local authority executives are transparent and that executives are fully accountable to the council. It will also consider ways for local authorities to increase fiscal autonomy and will review existing revenue-raising and debt management options, match-funding requirements and new alternative revenue-raising powers.

Our new national housing plan will be delivered in the coming months to ensure we put in place the right policies. Many of the items in the motion before the House are items that we as a Government are working on extensively.

I assure the Deputies that as we move through the next weeks and months, they will continue to see a range of measures implemented which seek to stimulate the construction sector, reduce the overall cost of development and deliver the step change to get to 50,000 housing units. I am under no illusions as to the challenges in getting to that figure but that is what gets me up in the morning. I am determined to make that step change to assist and play my role, working in collaboration with other Deputies. Debates like this that are productive and solutions-orientated are beneficial. Debates where we just shout over and back and shout insults are not productive. I hope the remainder of the debate will be conducted in the spirit in which it opened.

See this speech in context