Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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127. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number, separately, of social and affordable homes completed by Monaghan County Council in 2022; the targeted figure for 2023; the corresponding figures for approved housing bodies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23144/23]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Housing for All is the Government’s plan to increase the supply of housing to an average of 33,000 per year over the next decade. This includes the delivery of 90,000 social homes by 2030. Housing for All is supported by an investment package of over €4bn per annum, through an overall combination of €12bn in direct Exchequer funding, €3.5bn in funding through the Land Development Agency and €5bn funding through the Housing Finance Agency.

My Department publishes comprehensive programme level statistics on a quarterly basis on social housing delivery activity by local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) in each local authority, including Monaghan. This data is available to the end of 2022, and is published on the statistics page of my Department’s website, at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/collection/6060e-overall-social-housing-provision/ .

Monaghan County Council has a target to deliver 56 new build social homes in 2023. Data for Quarter 1 2023 is currently being collated and will be published shortly.

A key action of Housing for All required local authorities to develop Housing Delivery Action Plans to include details of social and affordable housing delivery. The Plans set out details of both social and affordable housing delivery as appropriate over the period 2022-2026, in line with targets set under Housing for All. A copy of Monaghan County Council’s Housing Delivery Action Plan is available on its website at the following link: monaghan.ie/monaghan-county-councils-housing-delivery-action-plan-approved-by-department-and-published-online/

My Department also publishes the Social Housing Construction Status Report (CSR). The CSR provides details of social housing developments and their location that have been completed, are under construction or are progressing through the various stages of the design and tender processes. The most recent publication was for Quarter 4 2022. All Construction Status Reports are available at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/collection/cb885-social-housing-construction-projects-status-reports/. A version of the CSR file can also be downloaded for analysis at the link below: opendata.housing.gov.ie/dataset/social-housing-construction-status-report-q4-2022 - Social Housing Construction Status Report Q4 2022 - Dataset - Dept of Housing, Local Government and Heritage

Local authorities with the highest levels of affordable housing need were asked to prepare Affordable Delivery Plans as part of their overall Plans and were set five-year Affordable Delivery Targets. Monaghan does not have a specific target as average house price levels in the county are still well below the national median.

Where there are localised challenges, funding can be made available to develop a scheme in line with Affordable Housing Fund criteria. To date, my Department has not received any application for funding under the Affordable Housing Fund (AHF) from Monaghan County Council.

In addition, the First Home Scheme, which was launched in July 2022, supports first-time buyers in purchasing new houses and apartments in the private market through the use of an equity share model. The Scheme aims to support in the region of 8,000 households in acquiring new homes in the private market in the years 2022 to 2026 with an overall budget of €400 million. The scheme is available nationwide. Full information on the scheme is available on the First Home Scheme dedicated website, www.firsthomescheme.ie .

Other measures, such as the Help to Buy Scheme and the Local Authority Home Loan, are also nationally available to eligible first-time purchasers to make home ownership more affordable.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) in the ‘New Dwelling Completions’ series show 6,716 new homes were added to the national housing stock in Q1 2023. This is an increase of 19% on Q1 2022, when 5,669 new homes were completed, and the highest number of Q1 completions recorded since the series began in 2011. The rolling 12-month total of 30,898 completions has surpassed 30,000 for the first time since 2009.

These figures come on the back of positive recent Commencement Notices data, with record numbers for March (since the series began in 2014), with 3,244 homes commenced; record numbers for Q1, whilst 3 of the last 5 months have had record figures for those calendar months.

Supply is key to improving our housing market and this continues to increase. Increased supply will help moderate residential price inflation, increase access to affordable housing, and assist those aspiring to home-ownership to achieve this goal.

More homes were completed in 2022 than in any full year in the last decade and Government is focused on maintaining and building on this substantial uplift in delivery in 2023 and beyond. I am optimistic we will meet the Housing for All target of 29,000 this year.