Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats)
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1702. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if his Department has investigated forming a State construction company, similar to an ESB for housing, with the aim of providing secure employment for construction workers and a supply of housing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44275/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Government established the Land Development Agency for the purpose of developing affordable and social housing on State lands. The LDA also works to procure housing units more broadly for cost rental and affordable purchase.

Plans have recently been announced for an enhanced LDA, to increase delivery of homes across the country, with the body working to deliver more private housing as well as social, affordable and cost rental.

Separately, the Housing Agency provides a range of housing functions and services, including assisting local authorities to deliver their housing programmes.

Supply has increased significantly in recent years. Some 148,500 new homes have been delivered since the beginning of 2020, with 92,400 of these delivered between 2022 and 2024 inclusive, exceeding the combined target for the period by 5,400 or so.

That said, The Programme for Government commits to building on the successes of Housing for All and ramping up supply further to deliver 300,000 homes between 2025 and 2030. A roadmap for hitting this target will be set out in a new housing plan to be published in the coming months. In the meantime, Government is already bringing forward actions to boost delivery. The recently revised National Planning Framework is a major step forward in this regard, and will help increase capacity and accelerate home building across the country, while new Housing Activation Office will work to address barriers to the delivery of infrastructure projects needed to enable housing development.

Further measures to stimulate development activity will be considered in the context of the new national housing plan, which Government aims to publish in the coming months.

Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats)
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1703. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if his Department has explored setting up State delivered modular housing factories to accelerate housing delivery; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44276/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) is a collective term which describes innovative construction alternatives to traditional construction, which includes modular housing.

My Department, working closely with the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, and other relevant stakeholders, is progressing work to increase delivery capacity in the residential construction sector through promoting the adoption of MMC.

The coordination of initiatives across Government to promote MMC adoption is led by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment through the interdepartmental MMC Leadership and Integration Group.

In 2023, the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, in collaboration with my Department, published the “Roadmap for the increased adoption of MMC in public housing delivery” which was a priority deliverable under Housing for All. The Roadmap set out a series of initiatives and policy interventions needed to advance the use of compliant MMC in public housing delivery and remove barriers to adoption. The publication of the MMC Roadmap set in train a live agenda for MMC development in Ireland.

Under the MMC Leadership and Integration Group a range of initiatives have already been put in place to support MMC. These include include the Accelerated Delivery Programme to deliver over 1,500 MMC dwellings through Local Authorities, the Built to Innovate initiative for innovative management in construction firms and the Construct Innovate Technology Centre hosted by University of Galway and led by Enterprise Ireland. Wexford County Council is also currently tendering a 3D Pilot Project of 22 social housing units utilising offsite three dimensional construction methods also known as modular units.

The recent Programme for Government contains a range of further initiatives to support MMC. These include setting up a MMC Innovation Fund via the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF), to directly fund housing factories, targets for MMC use in at least 25% of all State-backed housing, resourcing the National Standards Authority of Ireland to ensure certification for innovative systems are issued in a timely manner, and broadening the rollout of MMC training programmes.