Michael Cahill (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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1429. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will increase the provision of social housing stock and affordable cost-rental homes for vulnerable and low-income households, inclusive of new builds and vacant housing, and provide an additional investment of 10% of capital expenditure in budget 2026; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41213/25]

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.

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. More than 250 additional housing posts have been approved in local authorities nationally to deliver social 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.

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 terms of measures to increase the social housing stock by addressing vacancy the Buy & Renew Scheme allows local authorities to acquire and refurbish vacant/derelict properties and since it was introduced in 2016, in excess of 950 properties have been delivered under this arrangement, as new social homes.

As well as the permanent acquisition of vacant properties by local authorities and AHBs, my Department also provides the Repair and Leasing scheme/RLS which allows a local authority or AHB to provide a loan of up to €80,000 per unit to a property owner to bring a vacant property up to residential tenancy standards. Where a vacant property is renovated to provide more than one home, a loan of €80,000 is available per unit provided. The refurbished units are then leased to the local authority or an AHB for between 5 and 25 years to provide social housing. The interest free loan is recouped by way of an offset from the lease payment over an agreed term.

My Department's broader efforts to tackle vacancy and make efficient use of existing housing stock can be seen in the Vacant Homes Action Plan Progress Report launched in April 2024, which highlights the key measures that have been undertaken across all relevant Government departments to support this work - it is available on my Department's website at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/department-of-housing-local-government-and-heritage/publications/vacant-homes-action-plan-2023-2026/

As detailed under Housing for All, the Government plans to deliver 18,000 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. To date, nearly 4,000 Cost Rental homes have been delivered since the launch of Housing for All to end Q1 2025.

The continued 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.

The Land Development Agency (LDA) also continues to advance its delivery of Cost Rental 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 and is currently on track to deliver 5,000 new homes for social housing, Cost Rental and Affordable Purchase to eligible households by end 2026.

Affordable housing schemes, including Cost Rental, are now operating at scale and this momentum will continue as the pipeline is developed by local authorities, Approved Housing Bodies and the Land Development Agency in coordination with my Department, the Housing Agency and the Housing Delivery Co-ordination Office of the Local Government Management Association.

The delivery of Housing is at the centre of the updated National Development Plan (NDP) which provides for unprecedented levels of investment for housing and water infrastructure.

Overall investment of over €40bn will be provided for housing and related water services in the period to 2030. This investment will underpin the new Housing plan which will be published shortly and which will set out a sustainable platform for the accelerated delivery of Government housing commitments.