Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 18 November 2025
651. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of small and medium-sized construction firms currently active in residential building; their expected contribution to housing output to 2030; and the supports being provided to expand their capacity. [63925/25]
View answerPolicy responsibility for the support of the domestic small to medium enterprise (SME) market in Ireland in under the remit of the Minister for Enterprise Tourism and Employment (DETE), and Enterprise Ireland.
My Department engages frequently with other Government Departments and agencies towards increasing and strengthening enterprise growth in residential construction sector.
During early 2022, DETE expanded the role of the enterprise agencies to provide firm-level financial support for productivity enhancement and innovation in the domestic residential construction sector. Following this, Enterprise Ireland launched the “Built to Innovate” initiative to drive awareness of these opportunities in the construction sector. Enterprise Ireland seeks to support companies in the construction sector who wish to pursue:
Enhanced usage and implementation of MMC.
Implementation of Lean training in both manufacturing and off-site environments.
Improving the use of digital tools that can bring productivity benefits.
Funding for research concepts or process innovative ideas.
In addition the new housing plan“ Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025-2030” highlights a series of co-ordinated efforts such as The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) which makes significant equity and debt investments available to support high impact residential development, including for SME homebuilders.
Government will also promote opportunities to MMC manufacturers to use ISIF backed funds for opportunities to support new and existing factories. In addition, the Land Development Agency will seek to engage the SME residential construction sector in the roll out of its regional programme of work.
My Department will continue to work with all of Government to encourage growth in the SME sector, and to ensure drive innovation within in the residential construction sector.
