James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)

I thank colleagues for all their important contributions here today. I echo the comments made by the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, earlier and reassert this Government's commitment and determination to tackle the challenges in housing. Housing is a cross-sectoral challenge that has a real impact on people's lives. Our goal remains a housing system that serves the needs of our people. While there is still much to do, the Opposition motion inputs here today do not fairly represent the efforts and progress made to date. The motion claims that the Government is not treating housing with the urgency that it deserves, but we have laid a strong and secure foundation that will allow us to continue to ramp up delivery for the coming years. The measures introduced under Housing for All helped to establish a strong platform to scale up housing delivery further in the short term and secure a sustainable level of future supply that will help us to meet unmet and emerging demand.

At the same time, we fully acknowledge that housing remains an enormous challenge. The number of new homes coming on stream each year remains far short of where it needs to be. The Government has committed to delivering 300,000 new homes by 2030, targeting at least 60,000 homes annually by the end of that period. To this end, the programme for Government commits to a new national housing plan to build on the success of Housing for All. The plan will incorporate pragmatic actions to boost housing activity in the short term as well as longer term actions that will implement systemic change and help to achieve and sustain the levels of supply needed in the long term.

There is no one single policy approach, decision or silver bullet that will solve the housing challenges that we face. We must therefore consider every means available. The Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, has set out the progress we have made under Housing for All, including those relating to social and affordable housing delivery, and some of the key changes that we have introduced, particularly with regard to planning reform and our plans to scale up the supply of housing. The simple fact is that the largest social and affordable housing programme in the history of the State has been rolled out under Housing for All. This is demonstrated by our record level of investment being provided for the delivery of housing in 2025, with overall capital funding of almost €6.8 billion now available. The capital provision for 2025 is supplemented by a further €1.65 billion in current funding to address housing need.

Despite this undoubted progress, we must acknowledge that housing remains an enormous challenge and that the number of new homes coming on stream each year is far short of where it needs to be.

The number of homes coming on stream each year is far short of where it needs to be.

In the programme for Government, the Government has committed to delivering more homes. The new targets are ambitious but provide a credible pathway to delivering the scale of housing needed. Our immediate focus must be on achieving these targets. Key to achieving them will the delivery of new apartment developments in our cities and urban quarters. Much of the investment needed for such developments must come through the private sector, financed through appropriate sources of private capital, much of which will come from international sources. This capital is critical in apartment delivery, particularly for the private rental sector.

The Independent Ireland motion calls for increased capacity of critical infrastructure required for the delivery of housing. The Government is in fact 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 national development plan for the period 2025 to 2035, to be finalised by July of this year. The Government is therefore committed to delivering on the key objectives for infrastructure to support the delivery of the homes needed.

Uisce Éireann has ramped up capital delivery for water services and infrastructure from €300 million in 2014 to roughly €1.3 billion in 2024. For 2025, the Exchequer will provide more than €2.2 billion in funding to Uisce Éireann. The programme for Government commits to investing additional capital in Uisce Éireann under the revised national development plan to support our new housing targets. In response to increased demand for energy, the systems operators, ESB Networks and EirGrid, prepared business plans that propose to significantly increase investment in the electricity grid for the period of 2026 to 2030. While the Government looks forward to the conclusion of the sixth price review by the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities, which will provide a clear framework for investment in the electricity grid, it will support operators in building capacity and a more reliable and decarbonised energy system.

The Government also agreed to an ambitious expansion to the remit of the Land Development Agency 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 housing activation office and the Department in master planning and infrastructure provision in new towns and districts.

Regarding calls for the Government to build capacity of the construction sector, I argue a concerted effort is already under way. For example, budget 2025 has seen the single largest investment of core apprenticeship funding since the formation of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science in 2020 and an increase of 83%. This investment will support the continued growth of apprenticeship training capacity, with 6,319 registering to join 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 to increase skill supply through the existing network of skills provision across the tertiary system. I reiterate the Government is committed to scaling up capacity to deliver the homes we need and to facilitate this through appropriate Government support by increasing critical infrastructure capacity including electricity and water infrastructure.

I am also establishing housing activation office in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to identify and address barriers in the delivery of public infrastructure projects needed to enable housing development at local level through the alignment of funding and co-ordination of infrastructure providers. We will continue to do everything in our power to increase the capacity of critical infrastructure needed to support housing delivery and in turn to increase housing supply for now and generations to come.

I will conclude by advising that a new national housing plan to follow Housing for All will be underpinned by the required funding in the national development plan. The timing of the publication of the new panel will be aligned with the outcome of the NDP review process currently being undertaken. This plan will focus on the delivery of the new infrastructure and activation of land security finance as well as addressing viability challenges and boosting the capacity of the construction sector. We are not waiting for the plan. We have already made significant announcements over the past couple of months and will make more significant announcements over the coming weeks.

See this speech in context