Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)

Cork City Council has a target to deliver 592 new build social homes in 2025. The social housing construction status report, CSR, shows that there were 1,084 homes on site at various stages of design and procurement in Cork city at the end of Q1 of 2025. Cork county has a target of 683 new-build social homes this year. The CSR shows that there are 1,203 homes on site at various stages of design and procurement in Cork county. The CSR also shows that 308 new social homes were added to the pipeline across both local authorities in Q1. The number of social homes already in the pipeline, and the addition of new construction schemes to the pipeline, shows the strength of the Cork City Council and Cork County Council social housing build programmes.

On affordable housing, under Housing For All the affordable housing delivery target for 2025 is 6,400 and a very strong pipeline is in place across the delivery partners. Since the launch, over 14,500 affordable housing supports have been delivered by various delivery partners. This includes 2,000 in Cork. Building on this progress my Department will continue to engage with all delivery partners to further develop the affordable housing delivery pipeline for 2025 and beyond, which will be supported by the largest ever investment in social and affordable housing in the State with a budget of €4.16 billion available for 2026.

Further to that, the target for all homes over the period of the new plan will be 300,000 homes. We saw the budget decisions yesterday, with 10,200 social homes budgeted for in 2026, and a €3 billion budget for affordable homes. The State contribution towards the provision of housing has gone from €6.9 billion with a significant increase up to €9 billion.

The Deputy will know, as a former Cork county councillor, that the delivery in Cork county, in particular, is very strong and must be commended.

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