John Paul O'Shea (Cork North-West, Fine Gael)
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293. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government to outline the current proposals by Cork City Council, Cork County Council and approved housing bodies for the provision of cost-rental homes for 2025 and 2026; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53310/25]

William Aird (Laois, Fine Gael)
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306. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government to outline the progress to date on the delivery of cost-rental homes in County Laois; the steps being taken to ensure rents under these schemes remain affordable, relative to average local incomes; the additional measures being considered to assist working families facing high rental costs while awaiting cost-rental or affordable purchase opportunities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53591/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 293 and 306 together.

The Government is fully committed to delivering affordable housing at scale, and is continuing to accelerate housing supply across all tenures. A comprehensive implementation strategy is in place to support the various affordable housing schemes now being delivered by a range of delivery partners. Since the launch of Housing for All, over 14,500 affordable housing solutions have been delivered nationally, including almost 2,000 in Cork and over 300 in Laois.

Under Housing for All, a very strong cost rental pipeline is already in place across our delivery partners, including Local Authorities, Approved Housing Bodies and the Land Development Agency.

Building on this progress, my Department will continue to engage with all delivery partners to further the development of the affordable housing delivery pipeline, including cost rental, for 2026 and beyond, to ensure that the affordable housing programme responds effectively to the affordable housing needs identified at a local level.

Over 100 new homes have been delivered to date in Cork City through the Cost Rental Equity Loan, and further approvals are in place to deliver over 1,000 additional homes in Cork City by the end of 2029. In 2025 and 2026, 28 and 170 homes are due for delivery respectively in Cork City supported via CREL.

The first CREL project planned for Cork County was also approved earlier this year, for the delivery of 40 new homes. Also in Cork County, funding for 21 local authority led affordable schemes has been approved, to deliver 563 affordable purchase and 152 cost rental homes.

In line with the Government's commitment to identify and develop housing on vacant or underutilised publicly owned sites, 7 sites in Cork have been agreed by Government for transfer to the LDA, including St. Kevin’s in Cork City where construction is currently underway for the delivery of 267 homes, the first phase of which is expected to be delivered in Q1 2026.

The LDA is also planning to deliver over 300 cost rental and social homes at Horgans Quay with delivery beginning early in 2026, and 337 apartments at Marina Depot in Cork City, with the first phase targeted for delivery in 2027.

Cork is also seeing the delivery of new homes with funding from the Croí Cónaithe Cities scheme.

To date, funding has been approved for the delivery of 372 new homes in the Cork City area. (274 homes at Blackrock Villas, Cork, and 98 homes at Carr's Hill, Douglas, Cork). There are currently five further Croí Cónaithe Cities applications under assessment for proposed developments in Cork, with potential to deliver up to 570 new homes cumulatively.

County Laois has also seen some welcome delivery of cost rental homes, with 28 new homes delivered at The Maltings in Portlaoise in 2024 via CREL funding.

Cost Rents generally are set to cover the costs of delivering, financing, managing, and maintaining properties, without the influence of the supply and demand pressures of the private market. Where State funding has supported the delivery of new Cost Rental homes, it is a condition that projects achieve cost-covering rents which start at least 25% below those for comparable homes in the local private rental market.