Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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89. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the measures being taken to accelerate the delivery of social and affordable housing in the Dublin Bay north constituency; if he is reviewing the delays in planning, procurement or funding allocation; and if he is considering new legislative changes to streamline the process to ensure targets are met. [12946/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Government is fully 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 which is being provided for the delivery of Housing in 2025, with overall capital funding available of €6.5 billion. The capital provision is supplemented by a further €1.65 billion in current funding to address housing need.

The number of completed new build social homes, and the number in the pipeline, continues to remain strong year-on-year, with new construction projects added to the pipeline regularly. The strongest national delivery of social housing since 1975 was recorded in 2022 when 10,254 homes were delivered and that record was exceeded again in 2023. In total in 2023, 11,938 new social homes were delivered by local authorities and AHBs, including 8,110 new-build homes, 1,829 acquisitions and 1,999 homes through leasing programmes.

Data on social and affordable housing delivery is collated at local authority level. The latest Social Housing Construction Status Report (CSR) shows that there were 6,886 homes on site and at various stages of design and procurement in Dublin City at the end of Quarter 3 2024. Data for the Quarter 4 2024 CSR is currently being collated. All CSRs 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 by local authority, location etc. at this link: data.gov.ie/dataset/social-housing-construction-status-report-q3-2024

A central element of Housing for All is to build institutional capacity. As part of the measures to support institutional capacity, Housing for All commits to strengthen the capacity of local authorities to both programme manage and initiate, design, plan, develop and manage housing projects and recognises that this requires the resourcing of the housing services of local authorities. Eight additional housing posts have been approved for Dublin City Council to deliver social housing and 12.5 posts have been approved for affordable housing delivery. Additional resources were also allocated to the Housing Agency Project and Procurement Office to support local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies deliver housing.

Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) has been identified as a key measure to address increased housing delivery and methods to support increased use of MMC are set out in Pathway 5 of Housing for All. In July 2023 the Roadmap for increased adoption of MMC in Public Housing delivery was published and sets out recommendations to progress the most advanced and efficient construction methods in the delivery of housing.

The Housing for All Land Acquisition Fund was established in 2022 to support local authorities to acquire land to deliver new build social housing schemes and this was extended in 2024 to include land for affordable housing. The fund has an overall allocation of €239m and is managed by the Housing Agency. To date Dublin City Council has acquired 1 site through the Fund which will deliver 49 new social homes.

My Department has embedded the requirement to adopt a standardised approach for all Social Housing projects through adoption of the Design Manual for Quality Housing and Employers Requirements. Standard internal layouts and CAD Drawings are available to design teams. This is promoting a consistent approach nationally; it is decreasing the amount of time spent on reviewing proposals to achieve value for money; it is shortening detailed design phases; and it allows for a more efficient tender process.

In order to accelerate the approval process, local authorities have options that allow them to deviate from using the 4-stage process to achieve funding approval for social housing construction projects. The value for Single Stage projects has increased from €2m to €8m. This increased single stage approval process takes approximately 4 weeks with my Department.

The review of the CALF Funding Model has also brought an opportunity for the AHB and local authority sectors to bring forward both new projects and those which have been delayed due to viability issues, especially in those local authorities’ areas where the viability of schemes was traditionally an issue. The new CALF scheme has unlocked these areas for social housing delivery.

Last year, Government approved new national housing targets up to the year 2030. 303,000 homes will aim to be delivered in the period from 2025 to 2030, equating to an annual average of 50,500 homes, building up to 60,000 in 2030. The revised targets were informed by research and modelling by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) on population projections and long-run housing demand, which was published during the summer. The revised national housing targets will inform the revision to existing social and affordable housing targets at a local authority level. Work is ongoing in this regard.

As detailed under Housing for All, the Government plans to deliver 54,000 affordable purchase and cost rental homes by 2030. A comprehensive implementation strategy is in place to support the various affordable housing schemes now being delivered by a range of delivery partners.

The Affordable Housing Fund (AHF) is available to all local authorities to assist towards the cost of developing affordable housing at locations where significant affordability needs have been identified. My Department, the Housing Agency and Housing Delivery Co-ordination Office of the Local Government Management Association continue to be available to assist local authorities in relation to ongoing development of their affordable housing delivery programmes. Overall, local authorities have received funding approval of over €465m from the AHF to support the delivery of more than 5,200 affordable purchase and cost rental homes across 22 local authorities, including 1,076 affordable homes in Dublin City Council.

In addition, the development of Cost Rental homes is supported by my Department through a mixture of capital grants, loan financing, and State equity investment, via the Affordable Housing Fund to Local Authorities, the Cost Rental Equity Loan scheme to Approved Housing Bodies, and the Secure Tenancy Affordable Rental investment scheme which supports delivery by private operators. To date, over 5,600 Cost Rental homes have been approved for funding under the Cost Rental Equity Loan, to be delivered by Approved Housing Bodies, including 4,166 cost rental homes in Dublin.

The Land Development Agency also continues to advance its delivery of affordable homes through unlocking planning permissions under Project Tosaigh and by developing its own portfolio of State lands. The LDA is targeting 8,000 new homes over the course of the Project Tosaigh initiative. They are currently on track to deliver 5,000 new homes for social housing, Cost Rental and Affordable Purchase to eligible households by end 2026.

In addition, other measures such as the Local Authority Home Loan, the Local Authority Purchase and Renovation Scheme, the Help to Buy Incentive, and the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant are also available nationwide to help make home ownership more affordable.

Further information on affordable housing schemes currently advertised can be found on the websites of respective delivery partners, as well as on the Affordable Homes website, www.affordablehomes.ie.

My Department publishes comprehensive programme-level statistics on a quarterly basis on social and affordable housing delivery activity by local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) in each local authority. This data is available to the end of Q3 2024, 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/

Significant progress is being made to deliver the ambitious targets contained in Housing for All and my Department is working closely with the local authorities, Approved Housing Bodies and other stakeholders to accelerate the delivery of social and affordable housing.