Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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1558. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his views on the need for additional social and affordable housing in Rathmines and the surrounding area, including by way of part V housing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42537/25]

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

Dublin City Council are best placed to identify suitable sites for social and affordable housing delivery and bring forward proposals to my Department in line with local need. Dublin City Council has prepared a Housing Delivery Action Plan which 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. This includes Part V delivery. This has been published on their own website at the following link: www.dublincity.ie/residential/housing/learn-about-dublin-city-councils-housing-plans/dublin-city-councils-housing-delivery-action-plan-2022-2026.

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 Q1 2025 and now includes local authority new build social housing delivery and target statistics. This data 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/.

Amendments to Part V of the Planning and Development Act 2000 were introduced via the Affordable Housing Act 2021 to increase the contribution under Part V from 10% to 20% to include affordable and cost rental housing. Local authorities are free to decide how the 20% Part V contribution is broken down in terms of social and affordable housing (with a minimum 10% social housing). This is done in line with the local authorities housing need as identified in its Housing Strategy made as part of its Development Plan. Part V negotiations are solely a matter for the relevant local authority operating within the Guidelines.

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. An additional 8 posts have been approved to support the delivery of social housing projects with another 12.5 posts approved to support affordable housing projects in Dublin City.

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 relation to affordable housing, over 14,500 affordable housing solutions have been delivered since the launch of Housing for All to end Q1 2025, including 535 affordable housing options in Dublin City.

Dublin City Council has funding approval in place for six schemes to deliver over 1,000 affordable purchase homes with the support of the Affordable Housing Fund. In addition, over 1,300 Approved Housing Body Cost Rental homes have been approved for delivery under the Cost Rental Equity Loan scheme in Dublin City.

Furthermore, the Land Development Agency, through its market engagement initiative, Project Tosaigh, has delivered 210 cost rental apartments in the Dublin City County Council area, at Parkside in Belmayne, Dublin 13. The LDA is also working in partnership with Dublin City Council to progress the development of housing on 4 key local authority owend sites at An tSrúill (Cromcastle, Coolock); Donore Project (formerly St. Theresa’s Garden), Cherry Orchard Point, and Bluebell Waterways, with the collective potential to deliver over 2,200 homes. In addition, the LDA is also currently progressing delivery of over 4,000 homes in the DCC area at two privately acquired adjacent sites at Clongriffin and Baldoyle.

Building on this progress, my Department will continue to engage with all delivery partners to further the development of the affordable housing delivery pipeline for 2025 and beyond, and to ensure that the affordable housing programme responds effectively to the affordable housing needs identified at a local level.