Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North-Central, Fianna Fail)
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15. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the efforts he and his Department have made to encourage new technologies in the construction sector; the role he believes modular housing can play in the current crisis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35401/25]

Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North-Central, Fianna Fail)
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Will the Minister outline the efforts he and his Department have made to encourage new technologies in the construction sector, and the role he believes modular housing can play?

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy O'Sullivan for raising this question about the encouragement of new technologies in the construction sector, including modular housing. I understand he has raised this issue on numerous occasions.

The use of modern methods of construction, MMC, is a key policy measure to boost construction sector productivity and to support the scaling-up of delivery of new housing supply. MMC is a collective term which describes a number of innovative alternatives to traditional on-site construction methods. It does include 3D volumetric modules, which are commonly known as modular houses, but also includes a number of other systems, including 2D systems like timber frames, light-gauge steel or insulated concrete formwork, all of which have the potential to increase productivity in construction.

We have already made a good deal of progress under Housing for All in terms of promoting the use of MMC in both public and private housing. We are supporting local authorities to adopt MMC in social and affordable housing, including through the publication of the 2023 roadmap for increased adoption of MMC in public housing and by providing real opportunities to deliver homes using MMC. For example, my Department has an accelerated delivery programme which will deliver more than 1,500 social homes through local authorities, all being built using modern methods of construction.

In terms of modular projects, Wexford County Council is progressing a pilot social housing project for 22 modular homes at a site in New Ross, with funding support from my Department, and that will present an opportunity to examine the potential of this type of MMC through this and other modular projects. I am keen to continue the progress the Government has made to date in encouraging the use of MMC and it will form an important aspect of the next housing plan.

Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North-Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister referenced the fact that the Department has made a good deal of progress on MMC. Will he quantify that for me if he has the figures available? How many units have been built since 2023 or whatever date he referenced? I understand a target of 1,500 was mentioned, but will he quantify the number of units that have been delivered via this method?

A much-maligned project took place in Mahon in Cork two years ago that turned out to be more expensive and took longer than a conventional build. It is very easy for us to react negatively to MMC and modular housing but my belief is that it has a crucial role to play in the future. A company was established in my area in recent years which deals with a specific type of modular housing, namely, the conversion of shipping containers. It is something we must consider, not perhaps as a long-term solution for housing but at least as a temporary solution.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I fully agree with the Deputy that MMC is critical to housing delivery in this country. When modular units were first proposed for schools, for example, there was a little bit of pushback from school principals, who were concerned as many of them had grown up with very poor prefabs and perhaps they thought that was what was coming. I was chair of a school board of management at the time, and when the modular building arrived, we saw the high quality of the build. School principals then raced to get them because they could be got at such speed.

A similar change of mindset is required for housing. It is the way forward. Our tradespeople are getting older and it is becoming more and more difficult to replace them, so if we want to build housing at scale, it must be done through modern methods of construction. One of the things the Government did today was to get agreement to end the four-stage process and reduce it to a single-stage process, but also to make it mandatory for local authorities to use a housing design manual from the Department of housing, which contains 60 designs. What that will also do is help those providing MMC across the country to know they can now scale up because there will be consistency of style specifications for the delivery of social housing throughout the country.

Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I am someone who is about to embark on a journey with my family to build our first home.

If there was a genuine modular offering for us as a family, we would look at it but, unfortunately, it is just not there for us as one-off house builders. I am lucky to be in that position. Still, there are significant barriers there. I was at a lunch today with the Estonian ambassador and she spoke to me about a conference she attended, which I believe a number of colleagues attended as well as part of a trade mission in the past few years, where there had been issues with certification. They are able to build these houses to scale in central and eastern Europe. Obviously, a house being built in Estonia will be different from one being built in Ireland. I assume climate plays a role in that. The Estonians speak about our inability to get over the bureaucracy and how we are strangled by certification. It is necessary but this is three years after she first flagged it as an issue. That is something that frustrates me. Between the Custom House and Department of public expenditure we get bogged down in bureaucracy and administration. Hopefully some day we can break free from it and get on with delivering these units.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I agree. It is simply taking too long to get certification for the use of modular builds in this country. The Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, is engaging with his counterpart in the Department of enterprise. We are determined to get to a situation where we can get certification done at a much quicker pace. We need it done. We have an ageing workforce. It is getting more difficult to replace them. If we want to go from 30,000 houses a year to 60,000 houses a year, it has to be done using modern methods of construction. That is modular build. I was in Hong Kong in March. There, 45-storey apartment blocks are being built purely using modular. They can do it at an extraordinary pace. We need to do it. It is also about productivity. We have very low productivity in the building sector in Ireland. Again, that is because we are not using modern methods of construction compared to other countries. We are behind the curve on this. The Minister of State and I are determined that we will catch up very quickly.