Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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70. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the way in which his Department’s new housing strategy will deliver additional cost rental housing units; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [65856/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Delivering Homes, Building Communities, published on 13 November 2025, is Ireland’s new national housing plan. It is a wide-ranging action plan focused on housing supply and targeting homelessness and places Government focus on measures to activate supply alongside actions to support people who are homeless or experiencing housing challenges.

Crucially, the new plan seeks to significantly accelerate delivery by focusing on activating land and creating the optimal environment to encourage housing activity, including regulatory reform, tax incentives and the largest ever capital investment in the history of the State, with €275 billion invested in infrastructure over ten years through the National Development Plan.

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. With a strong focus on deliverability, the Plan will enable housing delivery partners to accelerate the supply of new starter home supports, providing thousands of individuals and families with increased access to secure and affordable housing solutions nationwide.

Cost Rental forms a key aspect of Pillar 1 of Delivering Homes, Building Communities which focuses on activating the supply of 300,000 homes. Cost Rental dwellings are more affordable to tenants being at least 25% below market rents in a given area and are targeted at households whose annual net incomes are not in excess of €66,000 in Dublin and €59,000 in the rest of the country).

As the tenure continues to be rolled out, it provides more options for long-term rental accommodation with secure tenures for thousands of renters, assisting eligible households in the private rental sector. It is also expected that the development of the Cost Rental sector will have a moderating impact on the wider rental market, putting downward pressure on market rents over the longer term.