Written Answers Nos. 341-348
341. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the planning timeline assumptions used to underpin the delivery pathway for the target of 300,000 homes under Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025 to 2030, including assumed statutory and non-statutory timeframes for applications, appeals, and judicial reviews. [68822/25]
View answerThe commencement of the Planning and Development Act 2024 (Act of 2024) will be important in activating available land for housing delivery. This programme of reform of the planning system in recent years changes the context for statutory planning timelines. The Act introduces a number of key reforms to the planning process that will assist the timelines for the delivery of housing and supporting infrastructure, including:
• the introduction of mandatory statutory time periods for decisions on all consent processes including, for the first time, for An Coimisiún Pleanála, the headline time periods for An Coimisiún will range from 18 weeks for appeals of decisions of planning authorities to 48 weeks for larger-scale Strategic Infrastructure Developments. - to give confidence and certainty to both the public and stakeholders involved in the delivery of key infrastructure such as housing,
• 10-year Development Plans that will be more strategic in nature, including an interim review of the plan after 5 years to provide greater certainty that there is sufficient zoned land available to align with the needs of the housing and economic development,
• significant reforms to the planning judicial review processes and the introduction of an ability to suspend the duration of a permission while it is subject to judicial review proceedings, so as not to lose the time available for completing a development,
• measures to deter any misuse of planning processes through spurious planning submissions and appeals and a ban on requesting payment for not opposing development.
The Act of 2024 introduces statutory time periods for decision making for An Coimisiún Pleanála (An Coimisiún) for the first time. The headline time periods for An Coimisiún will range from 18 weeks for appeals of decisions of planning authorities to 48 weeks for larger-scale Strategic Infrastructure Developments. The varying timelines reflect the differing complexities of applications dealt with by An Coimisiún Pleanála.
The Act of 2024 also makes important reforms in relation to Judicial Review (JR). It:
• removes the requirement to apply for leave to apply for JR proceedings which reduces time and removes unnecessary additional legal costs to all parties.
• requires that an application for JR may only be made on the grounds of challenge raised by the applicant in the statement of grounds filed with their application and sets out limited criteria by which the Court may allow subsequent amendments to that statement of grounds.
• provides that an applicant for JR will not be permitted to plead a ground in JR proceedings unless they have a sufficient interest in the matter to which the ground relates.
My Department is in the processes of commencing of the Act of 2024 on a phased basis to facilitate the transition to the new legislation across the planning system, taking into account the need to liaise with local authorities, planning bodies and other stakeholders. It should be noted that the existing provisions in the Act of 2000 will remain in place until repealed and the relevant provisions in the Act of 2024 are commenced. A detailed implementation plan is available at www.gov.ie/planning
To ensure the zoning of sufficient land for 300,000 homes, Government and the Oireachtas approved the First Revision to the National Planning Framework in April 2025.
To ensure that local authority development plans reflect the requirements of the recently Revised National Planning Framework (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 plans 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’. Several local authorities have already commenced a process to vary their development plan to provide additional zoned land.
In due course, local authorities will be required to begin the process of preparing 10 year development plans under the relevant provisions of the Planning and Development Act 2024, which is being implemented on a phased basis. These 10 year plans will also be required to take the updated planned housing growth requirements arising from the Revised NPF into account.
Through the Development Plan, planning authorities include relevant objectives, policy support, as well as identifying suitable locations, for such various purposes through the zoning of land for a range of uses. The 31 local authority development plans include maps, which are published online, to identify which lands across the city or county are zoned for particular uses, including for the purposes of developing housing, and in each case, land is required to be identified for these purposes. The statutory development plan, including zoning objectives, forms the basis for decision making within the planning system. Currently, local area plans (LAPs) may also be prepared for individual settlements or areas within the local authority administrative areas, and may include zoning objectives. The relevant development plans and local area plans may be viewed on the website of each local authority.
Building 300,000 new homes will require a sufficient pipeline of available land, including the land available for development identified above. As set out in Delivering Homes, Building Communities, Government will take action across a range of areas, including, from a planning perspective ensuring that a sufficient quantum of zoned and serviced land is available for housing development in line with the National Planning Framework and updated Housing Growth Requirements issued in July 2025. In addition, a greater level of certainty in relation to the planning process and timelines for decision making will be achieved through the introduction of statutory timelines for decision making for all types of planning applications and appeals in the Planning and Development Act 2024 and the provision of additional resources within the statutory planning system.
342. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of infrastructure barriers identified by the Housing Activation Office in each local authority to date; the category of barrier identified in each case; and the corrective actions recommended. [68823/25]
View answerI refer to the reply to Dáil Question No. 571 of 25 November 2025 which sets out the position on this matter and remains unchanged.
343. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of social housing projects approved above basic unit cost levels in 2023, 2024 and to date in 2025; the reasons for the variance in each case; and the way his Department intends to begin systematically recording and publishing this information. [68824/25]
View answerFurther to my response to Question No. 572 of 25 November 2025, the information sought is not readily available as the systems used to track projects though the various lifecycle stages do not record the variance between Basic Unit Costs (BUCs) and approved construction budgets. It is not intended to record or publish this information.
My Department periodically issues BUCs for each local authority area as key benchmarks for developing and costing housing scheme designs at the initial capital appraisal stage. They are not intended to be limits or ceilings on project costs, rather their function is to provide local authorities with guideline costings at an early stage of project development.
While not a record of actual delivery costs, BUCs are informed by analysis of returned tender data from tendered social housing schemes and reflect a ‘base build cost’, excluding abnormals (i.e. project specific requirements such as poor ground conditions, site topography, special needs requirements). Given the nature of construction, all projects would be expected to have some level of abnormal or project specific requirements. However, the extent of such requirements will vary significantly from project to project.
As outlined in my earlier response, all proposals for social housing construction projects are assessed by my department on a case-by-case basis, taking the above factors into account and having regard to value for money, compliance with design guidelines, the Capital Works Management Framework, Infrastructure Guidelines, procurement procedures and most economically advantageous tender evaluations, as well as overall suitability, before budgets are issued to local authorities. As a result, any project approved for capital funding has been thoroughly appraised and my Department has satisfied itself that the cost of construction is justified and necessary.
Given each proposal is so rigorously assessed, and any construction budget approval accounts for the specific requirements and challenges presented by each individual proposal or site, my Department does not systematically record and publish information on variances above or below the BUCs for each project, as such data would be of limited meaningful value and may be misinterpreted.
344. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of local authority homes in Cork city and Cork county that have been upgraded to BER C in 2025. [68826/25]
View answer345. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the actions being taken to close any gaps from delays in the current retrofit delivery rate in achieving the Government's target to retrofit 36,500 local authority homes to BER B2 by 2030. [68829/25]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 344 and 345 together.
Further to my response to Question No. 584 of 25 November 2025, my Department does not have data on the number of local authority social homes at, or retrofitted to, a specific BER rating. Accordingly, these data should be sought directly from Cork City and Cork County Councils.
By end-2025, I expect some 11,000 local authority homes to have been retrofitted to a B2 standard, with support from my Department's Energy Efficiency Retrofit Programme (EERP). Appetite and capacity to step-up delivery in this regard is growing across the sector and is being matched with increased Government funding. In this regard, EERP funding will increase from €90 million to €140 million in 2026 and is expected to support up to 3,500 social home retrofits next year.
Given the level of progress to date, the growth in appetite and capacity, and the continuing year-on-year increase in output across sector in recent years, I am confident we are on track to hit our target of 36,500 retrofits by end-2030. Accordingly, I do not believe any additional measures are required at this stage.
346. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the steps his Department has taken since 2022 to secure more granular productivity data to support national housing targets. [68830/25]
View answer347. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if his Department has assessed the budgetary and value-for-money implications of the absence of residential specific productivity data within the national construction sector, and if he will outline any measures taken to ensure capital allocations for housing delivery are supported by reliable productivity metrics. [68831/25]
View answer348. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if his Department will support the development of new data collection methods within the CSO to measure labour and capital productivity in residential construction separately from other construction activity, and if he will outline what steps, consultations or technical workstreams have been undertaken since 2022 to improve productivity measurement in the construction sector. [68832/25]
View answerThe Central Statistics Office produces annual and quarterly information on productivity in economic sectors of the Irish Economy, including on productivity in the construction sector. However, I understand that the underlying data sources do not allow for the distinction between residential and other forms of construction.
My Department is involved in regular collaboration with the Central Statistics Office and the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, alongside other government departments, in developing indicators relating to housing data. One such recent area of collaboration is in relation to developing insights on the scale and variance of use of Modern Methods of Construction for new residential dwellings.
A robust, reliable measure of residential construction activity would be beneficial. Representatives of my Department and the Central Statistics Office have very recently discussed the potential deployment of residential construction productivity indicators with representatives of the Central Statistics Office, however I understand that there are challenges, particularly the ongoing access to data that would be required to generate an index of activity. I acknowledge that the Central Statistics Office is best placed to adjudicate between the many competing demands for additional statistical series.
As the Central Statistics Office operates under the aegis of the Taoiseach, questions regarding the Central Statistics Office’s plans in this area are best directed to the Taoiseach’s Department.
