Colm Burke (Cork North-Central, Fine Gael)
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242. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the further steps that his Department is taking to increase the number of social houses built across the country as outlined in the Housing Commission Report; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27896/25]

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 €6.8 billion. The capital provision is supplemented by a further €1.65 billion in current funding to address housing need.

Data on social and affordable housing delivery is collated at local authority level. The latest Social Housing Construction Status Report (CSR) shows that 10,614 social homes are currently onsite with an additional 13,996 homes at design and tender stage at the end of Quarter 4 2024. 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: www.opendata.housing.gov.ie/dataset/social-housing-construction-status-report-q4-2024

The Housing Commission Report recommends that the proportion of social and cost-rental housing needs to increase relative to the overall stock. In this regard, I believe the proportion of social and cost-rental housing needed is ultimately one that allows the demand for such housing to be fully met at any given time. To this end, my Department, in collaboration with the local government sector, continues to work year-on-year to expand our stock of public housing.

Concurrently, Housing for All set ambitious targets with approximately one third of overall housing delivery being social and cost-rental housing. The revised local authority and tenure-specific targets are still to be finalised but we would expect the proportion of targeted social and cost rental to be similar when they are agreed. Over time, achieving such levels of delivery will drive up the stock of social and cost rental to the levels proposed by the Housing Commission.

A central element of Housing for All is to build institutional capacity. As part of the measures to support this, 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.

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.

In December 2022, funding of €94m was provided to local authorities to address legacy land debts. The provision of this funding was linked to the immediate development of a housing proposal and a commitment to use Modern Methods of Construction (MMC). A total of 26 sites received funding as part of an accelerated delivery programme, and with some additional sites since added, my Department is overseeing a project to progress delivery of MMC projects on 36 sites which will deliver more than 1,500 new social homes across 13 local authorities.

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.

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.

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 Q4 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/