Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 9, inclusive, together.

The Cabinet committee on housing last met on Wednesday, 3 September, and will meet again in the coming weeks. The committee works to ensure a cross-government approach to the implementation of our commitments regarding housing policy. Housing supply has increased significantly over the past number of years, with almost 148,500 new homes delivered since the start of 2020. More people are buying their first home than in any period in well over a decade, with 2024 seeing first-time buyer mortgage drawdowns of over 26,000, supported by Government-backed measures such as the first home and help to buy schemes. However, we know that we must do more and that the scale of delivery of housing needs to be significantly increased in the coming years.

This is why we have prioritised a range of far-reaching measures and the deployment of significant funding since coming into government. This includes the allocation of €1.4 billion in additional capital funding for housing in 2025, bringing the total capital funding for housing programmes this year to €7.5 billion to support the provision of new social and affordable homes, bringing vacant homes back into residential use, second-hand acquisitions to prevent vulnerable households falling into homelessness and continuing to support homeowners under the defective concrete blocks grant scheme.

We have revised the national planning framework to enable local authorities to zone a significantly higher quantum of land.

We are implementing the Planning and Development Act at speed to reduce delays and bring greater consistency, clarity and stability to the planning system. We have agreed reforms to rent pressure zones which will strengthen the rights of tenants while helping to stimulate much-needed investment and development over the longer term. We have initiated the process to regulate the short-term lets market to balance the needs of tourism with the aim of increasing long-term rental supply. We have taken action to drive down the cost of construction through new guidelines on apartment standards. We continue to support key delivery partners such as the local authorities and the Land Development Agency, which have a significant and central role to play in the scaling-up of our housing supply. We have also taken action to get things moving quickly, including the extension to planning permissions which are about to expire and the introduction of a single-stage approval process for social housing projects, up to a value of €200 million.

Housing delivery, along with infrastructure and utility investment to enable delivery at scale, is at the centre of the recently agreed national development plan, which sets out a total investment of €275.4 billion, including €28 billion for housing programmes. As the largest ever capital investment plan in the history of the State, it will create the building blocks we need to deliver thousands of new homes through upgrading our water and energy infrastructure, delivery of roads and providing better public transport. We understand that the housing challenge impacts at many levels of our society, but clearly the impact is most acute and difficult for those who are homeless. Last week, the Minister, Deputy Browne, announced the prioritisation of €50 million for housing acquisitions to support larger families with children and housing first clients to exit long-term homeless emergency accommodation into safe, secure and permanent homes.

Building on these measures already taken, we are now in the process of finalising a new national housing plan for the next five years and beyond. Key issues we are working through as we finalise the plan include the promotion of innovation in the construction sector, the need for private finance at scale to complement unprecedented levels of State funding and ensuring the viability of apartment delivery. We are working with our colleagues across Government to find the right mix of measures to address these challenges. The new plan will be published in the coming weeks and I am confident that we can build on our success to date and achieve further momentum across all different areas of housing delivery over the lifetime of this Government.

See this speech in context