Written answers

Tuesday, 1 April 2025

Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government

Housing Schemes

Photo of Joe CooneyJoe Cooney (Clare, Fine Gael)
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487. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government to outline details of the location, by town name, of all social housing schemes completed for the years 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 in County Clare, as well as those currently in planning and under construction, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15592/25]

Photo of James BrowneJames Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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My Department publishes the Social Housing Construction Status Report (CSR), which 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 3 2024. 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 of completions, locations, approvals stage etc. at the link below:

The Q4 2024 Construction Status Report is due to be published shortly.

My Department also 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/

Data for the Q4 2024 social and affordable housing delivery figures is currently being collated and validated.

Data in respect of granted planning permissions is collected and published quarterly by the CSO on its website. The data, which can be accessed at , is disaggregated by local authority and dwelling type (apartment, multi-development house and one-off house).

Data on the number of permitted units at local electoral area level, or which will ultimately be delivered as affordable purchase or social homes, is not available.

Photo of Joe CooneyJoe Cooney (Clare, Fine Gael)
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488. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the steps his Department has taken to identify zoned, serviced lands owned by local authorities that could be utilised for delivery of social and affordable housing in that local authority; the area of such lands and numbers of housing, by local authority area; and whether those lands are the subject of applications for funding to his Department. [15594/25]

Photo of James BrowneJames Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Housing for All includes measures to support local authorities to acquire the necessary land required in order to meet social and affordable targets. As part of the measures Local Authorities began updating and providing details of their respective Landbanks. The National Social Housing Data Map was established by the Department in conjunction with the Local Authorities to capture this data. Details provided included land available for both social and affordable housing.

Each local authority was required to prepare a Housing Delivery Action Plan. This Plan sets 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. The plans have been published on local authorities’ own websites.

The zoning of land for particular purposes, including housing, is an exercise undertaken by planning authorities as part of their overall statutory plan function generally as part of a development plan under sections 9 to 13 of the Planning and Development Act, 2000 (as amended), but can at present also be carried out as part of a local area plan (LAP) process. The making of a development plan or an LAP is a reserved function of the elected members of each authority.

It should be noted in the first instance that the zoning of land within a development plan or a local area plan is not broken down on the basis of individual sites or parcels of land in individual ownerships.

However, the Land Development Agency (LDA) has developed the State Lands Database which provides a detailed and mapped representation of the extent and location of lands owned by public bodies, including local authorities in Ireland.

The constraints and limitations with difficulties regarding data and ongoing land registration means that the LDA will continue to update the State Lands Database to take account of information from local authorities and other public bodies on entries/records provided, and as new publicly owned sites are added to the webmap.

Details of the zoning status of lands identified in the State Lands Database are available as part of the information provided by the LDA. This zoning information is sourced from the MyPlan.ie platform which amalgamates the zoning information from statutory City and County Development Plans nationally.

The LDA has also completed the Register of Relevant Lands, being lands owned by local authorities and bodies listed under Schedule 1 and 2 of the Land Development Agency Act 2021, in urban population areas greater than 10,000. Both the State Lands Database and the Register of Relevant Lands are also available in an online map format on the LDA website at the following link:

Where a local authority is seeking to deliver social housing, Exchequer funding is made available under the Social Housing Investment Programme (SHIP), my Department provides 100% of these costs to local authorities including the site costs.

Support from the Affordable Housing Fund is available to all local authorities to deliver affordable purchase and cost rental homes where an affordable housing need is evidenced.

In addition, 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.

The table below indicates the number of potential units in each local authority according to The National Social Housing Data Map. This includes lands that are zoned residential or mixed use and are either fully serviced or partially serviced. It would be a matter for the individual local authority to confirm when these sites are likely to be brought forward for development as this level of detail would not be held by my Department.

LA
Number of Sites
Total Potential Units
SH Units
AH Units
Carlow 5 200 190 10
Cavan 2 22 22 0
Clare 7 306 206 100
Cork City 4 774 774 0
Cork County 9 295 225 70
DLR 8 488 464 24
Donegal 19 681 681 0
Dublin City 77 7,803 3,947 3,856
Fingal 8 597 125 472
Galway City 10 530 334 196
Galway County 12 350 206 144
Kerry 12 513 213 300
Kildare 8 95 95 0
Kilkenny 8 87 66 21
Laois 9 101 101 0
Leitrim 2 18 18 0
Limerick 44 776 593 183
Longford 12 16 16 0
Louth 5 263 263 0
Mayo 23 373 358 15
Meath 14 156 141 15
Monaghan 4 123 98 25
Offaly 15 173 173 0
Roscommon 5 120 120 0
Sligo 7 108 108 0
South Dublin 4 2,072 923 1,149
Tipperary 23 433 377 56
Waterford 7 89 79 10
Westmeath 10 266 240 26
Wexford 6 41 41 0
Wicklow 11 385 385 0
Total 390 18,254 11,582 6,672

Photo of Cian O'CallaghanCian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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489. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he is considering revising the price ceiling for the first home scheme in Dublin; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15668/25]

Photo of James BrowneJames Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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The First Home Scheme, which launched in July 2022, is a shared equity scheme, designed to help bridge the gap for eligible first-time buyers, eligible homebuyers, and self-builders, between their deposit and mortgage, and the price of their new home (within price ceilings established across the country). Full details are available on the First Home Scheme website, www.firsthomescheme.ie.

The First Home Scheme Designated Activity Company (DAC) is fully responsible for the operation of the First Home Scheme on behalf of all shareholders, including price ceiling reviews. At its launch, the First Home Scheme Designated Activity Company (DAC) announced it would review all price ceilings at 6-month intervals. The DAC take into account a range of factors as part of these reviews, including the median price and volume of new builds purchased by first time buyers throughout local authority areas.

At the end of December 2024, the First Home DAC published the outcome of the fifth of its scheduled 6-monthly review of the price ceilings that apply to qualifying homes and subsequently revised price ceilings in relation to 3 local authority areas. The revised price ceilings came into effect on 1 January 2025.

More information on price-ceiling reviews is available at the following link: .

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