Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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656. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the borrowing capacity of each local authority in 2024 and 2025 for housing construction; the level of borrowing approved for Cork City Council and Cork County Council; and the number of housing units this borrowing is expected to support. [63932/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Local authorities are entirely independent corporate entities having full responsibility under law for the performance of their functions and the discharge of their governance and other responsibilities. The borrowing of money by a local authority is governed by Section 106 of the Local Government Act 2001. The decision to borrow is a reserved function of the local authority (i.e. the decision can only be made by elected members of a local authority). The borrowing must also be sanctioned by the appropriate Minister.

As part of Ireland’s obligations under the Maastricht Treaty regarding general government deficit and debt and the requirements of the revised Economic Governance Framework, the total value of non-mortgage borrowing undertaken annually by the local authority sector is limited by a requirement that the sector remain neutral in terms of the General Government Balance (GGB). Annual borrowing capacity is determined by an analysis of the amount of principal to be paid on non-mortgage loans in that year. The limit on borrowing capacity for non-mortgage loans in 2024 and 2025 is €118 million in each year.

Local authorities are not provided with individual allocations from the annual borrowing capacity. Applications for loan sanction are received from local authorities and processed by my Department as they are received. The annual limit covers borrowing capacity for all local authorities and for all purposes, not just for housing construction. In this context, Cork City Council have been provided with borrowing sanction of €4m in 2025 for footpath renewal and public realm works and this has been fully drawn down. In 2024, Cork County Council were provided with borrowing sanction of €10.86m for various cost rental housing projects and €8.5m was drawn down.

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 including Cork City and Cork County. This data is available to the end of Q2 2025 and 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/.

My Department also publishes the Social Housing Construction Status Report (CSR), which provides details of social housing developments and their location that have been completed, are under construction or are progressing through the various stages of the design and tender processes. The most recent publication was for Quarter 2 2025. All CSRs are available at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/collection/cb885-social-housing-construction-projects-status-reports/.

A version of the CSR file can also be downloaded for analysis by local authority, location etc. at this link: opendata.housing.gov.ie/dataset/social-housing-construction-status-report-q2-2025.