Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 26 November 2025
209. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if his Department has prepared a year-by-year delivery schedule to achieve the target of 12,000 new social homes per annum; and if he will provide that schedule, including quarterly output milestones for 2026, 2027 and 2028. [66580/25]
View answer210. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if his Department has carried out any assessment of the staffing, technical and financial resources required by local authorities to meet the 12,000 social homes annual target; and if he will outline any planned increases in housing, engineering, procurement or planning capacity for those authorities. [66581/25]
View answer211. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the steps his Department is taking to ensure that zoning, servicing, water capacity and planning permissions are aligned with the 12,000-unit annual social housing target; and if he will provide any internal reports, reviews or delivery forecasts addressing this alignment. [66582/25]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 209, 210 and 211 together.
Delivering Homes, Building Communities commits to supporting local authorities by financially supporting fully resourced and ring fenced housing delivery teams in each local 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.
The County and City Management Association (CCMA) is currently leading on a dedicated working group focused on local authority resourcing across the board for housing. My Department continues to work with the local authority sector to ensure adequate resourcing of social housing delivery teams.
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.
Funding was secured in Budget 2025 to support delivery of the Action Plan and a Steering Group established to coordinate and oversee the development of this Action Plan will remain in place to oversee the implementation and ongoing review of the Action Plan.
The occupation of town planner has now been added to the Critical Skills Occupation List (Action 9 of the Ministerial Action Plan) which will allow eligible non-EEA professionals from outside of Europe to now benefit from streamlined employment permit processes, making it easier for Irish employers to recruit and retain international talent in this vital sector. This addition is a decisive step to addressing planning resource shortages and reinforcing the capacity of our planning system to help meet current and future needs.
My Department is 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 sector and key stakeholders 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, approval was conveyed to the filling of an initial 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 112 posts - 56 graduate planner posts and 56 staff officer posts - to support the Planning function within local authorities. Engagement is ongoing with the local government sector on a third tranche of this programme of planning resources.
On 13 May 2025, a national recruitment campaign was launched to attract graduate planners into Ireland’s local authorities, which was supported by my Department. Regional interviews were held in late July and posts are currently being filled.
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.
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.
Under the new Housing 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. This development of HDAPs 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 with have regard to need as identified from their social housing waiting list.
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 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.
In Budget 2026, the total Exchequer funding being made available for the delivery of housing programmes is €7.21bn, comprising:
o Capital Funding - €5.19bn
o Current Funding - €2.021bn
The Exchequer Capital provision of €5.19bn will be supplemented by Land Development Agency (LDA) investment (projected up to €1.6bn) and Housing Finance Agency (HFA) lending (projected over €2bn), resulting in an overall capital provision of over €9bn.
