Malcolm Byrne (Wicklow-Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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601. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the plans to make cost rental accommodation available in Arklow, County Wicklow; the measures Wicklow County Council will take to deliver such homes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [63684/25]

Malcolm Byrne (Wicklow-Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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602. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the plans to make cost rental accommodation available in Gorey, County Wexford; the measures Wexford County Council will take to deliver such homes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [63685/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 601 and 602 together.

The 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. Overall, over 16,900 affordable housing solutions have been delivered by our range of delivery partners since 2021, including 318 in Wexford and 899 in Wicklow.

The new housing plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025 – 2030 reinforces and expands the range of existing measures being implemented by the Government to tackle the issues of supply and affordability, thereby supporting the increased provision of new homes to purchase and rent. The Government is investing an unprecedented level of funding to support housing supply, which will underpin, inter alia, the new Starter Homes Programme, delivering an average of 15,000 affordable housing supports annually to 2030, including starter homes for rent made available as the new cost rental tenure.

All local authorities prepare their own Housing Delivery Action Plan setting out their planned approach to meeting identified social and affordable housing needs. Wexford and Wicklow county councils' published plans are available on their official websites.

Cost rental housing provides affordable rented accommodation to people on middle incomes. It is aimed at people who are above the threshold for social housing but have difficulty affording private rented accommodation. Cost rental homes are delivered by approved housing bodies (AHB’s), local authorities and private operators including the Land Development Agency (LDA). They provide long-term security of tenure, so people can rent the same home indefinitely.

AHBs, supported by the Cost Rental Equity Loan (CREL), have delivered 29 cost rental homes in Wicklow, with a further 28 homes due for delivery by the end of 2025. While local authorities have not yet directly delivered cost rental housing in Wicklow or Wexford, I anticipate that these counties will continue to expand their delivery programmes as additional affordable housing schemes, including cost rental are identified, developed and approved.

My Department, the Housing Agency and Housing Delivery Co-ordination Office of the Local Government Management Agency continue to be available to assist all local authorities in relation to the ongoing development of their affordable housing delivery programmes.