Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
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520. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the actions that will be taken by Government and local authorities to ensure the housing completion targets of 41,000 by the end of 2026 and up to 60,000 per year by 2029 and 2030 will be reached; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7643/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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The Government has set ambitious housing targets for the period from 2025 to 2030. The measures introduced under Housing for All provide an excellent platform for delivery. The focus now is to achieve a further step-change and that will provide an uplift to 300,000 new homes by 2030.

The measures under Housing for All are supporting innovation in construction to improve the pace and efficiency of home building; increasing the construction sector’s capacity to build housing at scale; reforming the planning system; increasing the delivery of social and affordable homes; and tackling vacancy and dereliction.

In addition to the measures in Housing for All and the Programme for Government, I am examining actions to support the ‘scale up’ of delivery and ensure that increased supply is accelerated. I am also examining actions needed to meet the longer-term housing needs. The establishment of a new Strategic Housing Activation Office will assist in unblocking infrastructural challenges. The Planning and Development Act 2024 is now in place and I am prioritising its implementation as it is a critical enabler in accelerating housing delivery.

The revised targets are ambitious, but there is already a robust delivery pipeline in place that will continue to deliver in 2025 and 2026. We expect an increase in supply this year and the strong delivery pipeline underpinned by strong commencement activity indicates an increased delivery in the medium-term. The latest data, published on 16 January 2025 shows that 60,243 new homes commenced in 2024. This equates to an average of 239 homes commencing every working day last year and is a significant increase of 84% compared to the 32,801 homes commenced in 2023.

The Government is acutely aware of the housing challenges faced by many sectors of society. It has committed in the Programme for Government, published in January 2025, to introduce a new national housing plan to follow Housing for All. This will be underpinned by multi-annual funding. While this work is being undertaken, the measures detailed in Housing for All continue to be progressed.