Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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792. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the most up-to-date resources with respect to design of social homes; and the guidelines in place at the national level for same. [29506/25]

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. Housing for All set ambitious targets with approximately one third of overall housing delivery being social and cost-rental housing.

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.

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. The manual provides guidance on the design of residential site layouts and individual internal layouts of new apartments, duplexes, houses, community dwellings, and UD dwellings, and provides certainty as to what is considered appropriate for Department funded projects.

Additionally, the Employer’s Requirements for Detail Design of Quality Housing (2020) /www.gov.ie/en/publication/2f78e-employers-requirements-for-detail-design-of-quality-housing/ is essentially an outline standard specification, which sets out the general quality of materials, finishes and fittings that are eligible for Department funding. It also provides indicative guidance on tender documentation and methodologies to manage programme and project timelines.

A standardised design approach is also recognised as being key in facilitating ease of adoption of MMC. All the design manual layouts allow for construction utilising 2D panelised systems. My Department has engaged with industry and following discussion a limited number of designs from the Design Manual have been adjusted to allow for ease of delivery utilising different forms of MMC, including 3D volumetric systems. Standard internal layouts and CAD Drawings are available to design teams and by making these available my Department is promoting a consistent approach nationally; thus decreasing the amount of time spent on reviewing proposals to achieve value for money; shortening detailed design phases; and facilitating a more efficient tender process.

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: https://opendata.housing.gov.ie/dataset/social-housing-construction-status-report-q4-2024

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/.