Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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1. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government for an update on the delayed Department approvals for social and affordable housing. [24903/25]

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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Will the Minister update the House on the ongoing delay in approvals of social and affordable housing projects for local authorities and approved housing bodies? In particular, how many of the 3,000 units that got Cabinet funding approval on 18 February still have not been formally approved and notified to the local authorities and approved housing bodies? How many projects beyond the 3,000 are also delayed and awaiting approval in his Department?

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for his question on departmental approvals for social and affordable housing. The Government is committed to working with all stakeholders to deliver social, affordable and cost-rental homes at scale and to continue accelerating housing supply across all tenures. This is demonstrated by the record level of investment for the delivery of housing in 2025, with overall capital funding now available of almost €6.8 billion.

With regard to approvals, the Department continues to both receive and issue approvals and, indeed, make payments to AHBs and local authorities. Only this week, a number of applications for new-build social housing projects were approved and approval letters issued. Since the beginning of the year, the Department has released funding of over €1.1 billion for the social and affordable housing build programmes to local authorities and approved housing bodies, and payments continue to be issued.

It is important to note that developers and AHBs can begin their conversations with local authorities regarding projects significantly ahead of lodging a formal application to my Department. There will always be projects on hand with my Department, either under assessment or the subject of further engagement with local authorities or AHBs. This is perfectly normal.

The ongoing NDP review will determine capital budgets for the period 2026 to 2030. The outcome of this review will determine the available capital funding for social and affordable housing out to 2030, and this has been communicated to local authorities and approved housing bodies.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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The suggestion that what has been happening with the approvals for social and affordable housing at the end of last year and early this year is perfectly normal is simply not true. Either the Minister knows that and is refusing to address the question or he simply does not know what is going on in his Department. There is considerable frustration among local authorities, approved housing bodies and builders over the significant delay. Three thousand units were approved by the Cabinet in February but many of the related projects have not actually secured formal approval and notification has not been issued to the local authorities and approved housing bodies. I am talking to AHBs, large and small, and to builders. One builder in Dublin, who was halfway through building 50-plus apartments, had to close the site down because of an outstanding AHB CALF approval, the application having been last year. Can the Minister be honest with us and tell us how many of the 3,000 units have been subject to formal notification of approval? Are there more beyond those? We were hearing earlier this year that there could be as many as 5,000 units delayed. One assumes this is because of difficulties and disagreements between officials in the Minister’s Department and those in the Department of Finance and the Department of public expenditure and reform.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I am happy to engage with the Deputy if he wants to give me the information on any specific case he suggests has been delayed. There may be some confusion among some bodies who put in queries or applications, or whatever the case may be, in that they believe that because they have not got approval it somehow means a delay. The funding we have is being approved. We have been providing funding for the necessary projects, be they cost-rental, CALF or local authority projects. We do encourage applications. We always have applications on hand that are going through the process to determine whether they can be approved, but that is different from saying there is a bunch of applications that have been approved but simply have not got the funding that is necessary.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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I am beginning to worry that the Minister does not understand what is actually happening in his Department. I urge him to talk to local authority directors of housing and the Irish Council for Social Housing. I will forward him the details on the individual schemes by way of email after this meeting. Typically, a decision on an application from an AHB – for example, for the capital advance leasing facility – will be made in six to eight weeks. There was a large number of applications at the start of this year that were three or four months awaiting a decision. The Minister brought a memorandum to the Cabinet that promised to unblock the 3,000 units, but I am hearing that about half of the approvals to approved housing bodies related to the AHB portion of the 3,000 units have yet to be subject to due diligence in the Department and notification to the AHBs. I am hearing of AHBs with CALF, CREL and CAS applications that have been in the system for many months, which is undermining their ability to start going through the pipeline and their ability in respect of builders and developers of their turnkeys. The position is similar with local authorities. In other counties, there are schemes or homes that are finished but empty because CALF, CREL or SHIP funding has not been approved. The homes cannot be acquired and people cannot move in.

I urge the Minister to consider this again because what he is saying is simply not reflective of what I am hearing from local authorities, AHBs and builders.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Again, I thank the Deputy. I assure him I am over the detail in my Department. I think that some of the organisations presume that because they have an application in, they are entitled to funding or are automatically going to get funding. We are already providing record capital funding for this year, of almost €6.8 billion. There will be more spent. We encourage applications but the fact that an application has been submitted and has not been funded does not mean there is a delay because there is not an automatic entitlement to have a project funded. I will continue to look over any applications that are being submitted. We will continue to fund additional projects during this year but we are certainly not delaying the approval of projects.