Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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333. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if his Department has prepared a full delivery schedule to meet the stated target of 12,000 new social homes per year; and if he will provide the year-by-year and quarter-by-quarter milestones for 2026, 2027 and 2028. [68744/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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The Government's new Housing Plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities aims to deliver 300,000 new homes in the period to 2030, including 72,000 social homes. The Plan seeks to significantly scale-up delivery of new build social homes over the coming years, increasing from an average of 8,000 or so homes a year at present to an average of 12,000 per year.

Under the new Plan each local authority will prepare a Housing Delivery Action Plan (HDAP) setting out their planned delivery of social and affordable housing out to 2030 in line with targets which will be set by my Department in order to ensure the 72,000 social homes will be delivered by 2030. My Department will be communicating with local authorities in this regard in Q1 2026.

It should be noted that existing HDAPs run to the end of 2026 and it is expected that new HDAPs, which will run to 2030, will be in place by Q3/Q4 2026. The development of local authority HDAP’s will be undertaken in collaboration with delivery partners, including the Land Development Agency, Approved Housing Bodies, and the development sector. Each local authority’s implementation of the Starter Homes Programme, will be informed by local need, as identified by the Housing Needs and Demand Assessment framework, taking into account the need to provide the right mix of homes within their area. Planned social housing delivery will have regard to need as identified from their social housing waiting list.

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, on a local authority basis. Data on social housing delivery against targets is also published. 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, their location and their funding programme 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: .

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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334. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if his Department has completed any assessment of the staffing, technical and financial resources required by local authorities to achieve the 12,000-unit annual target; and if he will provide his Department's internal modelling for required engineering, planning, procurement and project-management capacity. [68745/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Delivering Homes, Building Communities commits to supporting local authorities by financially supporting fully resourced and ring fenced housing delivery teams in each authority focused exclusively on new build social and affordable housing projects. This builds on the commitment in Housing for All to strengthen the capacity of local authorities to initiate, design, plan, develop and manage housing projects.

Following extensive work undertaken to identify the additional capital staff resources required by local authorities to deliver the social housing targets set out in Housing for All, funding was approved for 250 technical and administrative housing posts in local authorities nationally to support social housing delivery.

My Department has also worked with the Housing Delivery Coordination Office and the County and City Management Association to identify additional staffing resources required by local authorities to support affordable housing delivery programmes. Funding provision has been made and sanction granted for a complement of 140.5 additional specialist and administrative positions across 27 local authorities to help ramp up affordable housing delivery. These posts are solely dedicated to affordable housing delivery and equip local authorities with increased levels of in-house expertise in key areas such as design, procurement, surveying, engineering and administration.

The City & County Management Association (CCMA) is currently leading on a dedicated working group focused on determining what additional local authority staffing resources may be required to deliver on social and affordable new build housing delivery targets to 2030. The working group was established earlier this year between the sector and the Department and is expected to report on its initial findings in Q1 2026.

Engagement with the CCMA group will ensure a comprehensive and strategic overview of national and individual requirements to ensure local authorities have sufficient resources to deliver on the Delivering Homes Building Communities Plan.

My Department is also currently working on a number of measures to increase staffing levels in the local government planning sector. In this regard, my Department is collaborating with the Local Government Management Agency on the delivery of a programme of supports to planning authorities. These supports include the provision of staffing resources and expertise to enable planning authorities to perform their functions efficiently and effectively.

In October 2023, my Department conveyed approval to the filling of an initial 100 posts, subsequently increased to 101 posts, in the local authority planning sector under the first tranche of a programme of supports for planning resources. A further approval issued in January 2025 for 56 graduate planner posts and 56 staff officer posts to support the Planning function within local authorities.

Consideration is currently being given to a business case received by the LGMA for a phase 3 of supports for further planning positions within the local government sector which will include a summer internship programme in 2026. Discussions are ongoing in this regard.

On 15 October 2024, my Department published a Ministerial Action Plan on Planning Resources to respond to capacity challenges in the planning sector. This Action Plan provides a detailed roadmap to increase the pool of planning and related expertise needed to ensure a planning system fit for future needs. It sets out 14 high-level actions that provide a coordinated pathway to ensure a sustainable pipeline of planning and related expertise into the future, addressing the areas of education, recruitment and retention, as well as measures to encourage greater innovation and efficiency.

It should be noted that, under Section 159 of the Local Government Act 2001, each Chief Executive is responsible for the staffing and organisational arrangements necessary for carrying out the functions of the local authority for which he/she is responsible including progressing appointments that have been sanctioned by my Department as appropriate. My Department oversees workforce planning for the local government sector, including the monitoring of local government sector employment levels.

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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335. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the actions taken to ensure alignment of zoning, serviced land, water capacity and planning permissions with the 12,000-unit annual social housing target; and if he will provide any internal reports or delivery forecasts assessing this alignment. [68746/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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The Revised National Planning Framework (NPF) was finalised and approved by Government and the Oireachtas in April 2025. The Revised NPF identifies the need to plan for approximately 50,000 additional households per annum to 2040.

The Revised NPF provides the basis for the review and updating of Regional Spatial and Economic Strategies (RSESs) and local authority development plans to reflect such critical matters such as updated housing figures or projected jobs growth, including through the zoning of land for residential, employment and a range of other purposes.

To ensure that local authority development plans reflect the requirements of the NPF in respect of housing as soon as possible, I issued the NPF Implementation: Housing Growth Requirements Guidelines under section 28 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 in July 2025. These Guidelines set out the housing demand scenario to 2040 for each local authority, by translating the NPF housing requirements into average annual figures and set out the requirement for planning authorities to commence the process of varying their development plan to meet the new housing growth requirements.

In addition to the baseline housing growth requirement, planning authorities have also been requested to address the scope for additional provision of up to 50% in excess of the baseline housing growth requirement, in light of the urgent need to increase housing delivery and to optimise the ability to deliver on the housing requirements of the Revised NPF. This approach recognises the fact that, for a variety of reasons, a relatively significant proportion of zoned lands are not activated over the period of a development plan.

Planning authorities are currently assessing their current development plan and undertaking a review of the adequacy of existing zoned lands to cater for the new Housing Growth Requirement figures and the potential for ‘additional provision’.

The zoning of land for particular purposes, including housing, is an exercise undertaken by planning authorities as part of their overall statutory plan function generally as part of a development plan under sections 9 to 13 of the Planning and Development Act, 2000 (as amended), but can at present also be carried out as part of a local area plan (LAP) process. The making of a development plan or an LAP is a reserved function of the elected members of each authority.

The Housing Needs and Demand Assessment provides evidence-based insights into housing needs across all tenures analysing demographic trends, affordability data and housing stock pressures. This framework allows local authorities to make informed decisions about future housing requirements. Following a comprehensive Housing Needs and Demand Assessment, all local authorities developed and published their Housing Delivery Action Plans setting out their plans to deliver social and affordable housing during the period from 2022-2026. Updated Housing Delivery Action Plans will be developed by each local authority in 2026 to outline delivery of social and affordable housing out to 2030.