Michael Cahill (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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564. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government to provide low cost sites in County Kerry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [66145/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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The Ready to Build Scheme, funded by the Croí Cónaithe Towns Fund, to support addressing vacancy, was launched in September 2022. Under the Scheme, local authorities can make vacant, serviced sites in towns and villages available to potential individual purchasers to build a home.

Under the scheme, local authorities identify suitable vacant sites in their ownership or purchase vacant sites in towns and villages and make them available for sale to individual purchasers for the purpose of building a principal private residence. Once serviced, the local authority will make the site available for sale at a discount on the market value of the site. The level of discount to the individual will depend on the level of servicing cost incurred by the local authority before the sale of the site, up to a maximum of €30,000.

The scheme is managed and administered by local authorities on behalf of my Department. To date 32 sites have been made available for sale by 4 local authorities, 5 sites in Wicklow, 16 sites in Laois, 4 sites in Tipperary and 7 sites by Kildare County Council. The relevant local authority assesses the applications they receive based on the framework of priorities contained in the scheme outline.

A further 100+ sites have been identified by various local authorities for possible inclusion in the scheme. These sites are at various stages of consideration to determine the costs involved to service the sites and ascertaining the potential level of interest in site purchase. All sites that have been made available under the scheme to date have been in local authority ownership though some local authorities are investigating the potential to acquire privately owned sites. The Vacant Homes Unit in my Department is continuing to engage with local authorities in relation to these sites.

While there are currently no sites available for sale under the scheme by Kerry County Council, I understand that Kerry County Council is currently working to identify potential sites under the scheme.

The new housing plan Delivering Homes, Supporting Communities also commits to expanding the current Ready to Build Scheme through local authorities whereby they will service sites in, and close to, towns and villages to enable construction of clusters of homes. A mix of private, social and affordable homes can be delivered on the same site, creating new mixed tenure communities.