Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 18 December 2025
513. Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the key measures taken to boost overall housing supply during 2025; his priorities for 2026; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [73543/25]
View answerThe Government is focused on increasing the national housing stock and ensuring a suitable range of housing is available to all. Activating housing supply is multifaceted, requiring a concerted effort across a number of policy areas and a range of measures were taken in 2025 to boost overall housing supply.
The Planning and Development Act 2024 represents the most comprehensive review of planning since 2000 and a detailed plan for the implementation of the Act was published in March 2025. The first phase of commencements has provided for the establishment of An Coimisiún Pleanála and introduced provisions for reformed planning judicial review. New tools such as Urban Development Zones and Urban and Priority Area Plans will support faster, more responsive delivery of housing and infrastructure, where it is needed most.
The Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2025 was approved, published and enacted before the summer recess to deal with expiring planning permissions and to encourage activation of housing, while the new Housing Activation Office will work to address barriers to the delivery of infrastructure projects needed to enable housing development.
The revised National Planning Framework (NPF) approved in April is a major step forward, and will help increase capacity and accelerate home building across the country. In July, I issued Guidelines instructing local authorities to update housing targets in line with the revised NPF. The new Guidelines set out the need to plan for approximately 55,000 additional households per annum on average to 2040, enabling zoning for a total of 83,000 units per annum.
In June, Government also agreed to amend the rent pressure zone framework, which will help stimulate increased development of apartments over the longer-term.
A fourth call for expressions of interest under the Croí Cónaithe Cities scheme was issued over the summer with submitted schemes now currently being assessed. The scheme will help activate the thousands of planning permissions for apartments in our cities. Furthermore, an enhanced Land Development Agency is working to deliver more private housing as well as social, affordable and cost rental homes.
The delivery of housing is at the centre of the updated National Development Plan, published in July, which provides for unprecedented levels of investment for housing and water infrastructure with overall investment of €40.5bn provided for housing and related water services to 2030. Furthermore, a record level of investment is being provided for the delivery of housing in 2026 with overall capital funding of over €9 billion announced in Budget 2026.
Government also announced in Budget 2026 reduced VAT on sale of apartments from 13.5% to 9%, Enhanced Corporation Tax Deductions on Construction Expenses to improve the viability of apartment building, and a Corporation Tax Exemption for Cost Rental Income to encourage delivery and increase viability of cost rental units.
The Government’s new plan Delivering Homes, Building Communities was published on 13 November 2025. The implementation of the actions set out in the plan, will see the delivery of 300,000 new homes over its lifetime, including 72,000 social homes, and provide 90,000 affordable supports to help people who are struggling to have a home of their own.
Pillar 1 of the new plan focuses on activating the supply of 300,000 homes. This will be achieved through a range of actions aimed at activating more land, providing more housing-related infrastructure, securing more development finance for home building, addressing viability challenges, particularly in apartment delivery, increasing the adoption of Modern Methods of Construction, improving labour skills in the residential construction sector, and working towards ending dereliction and vacancy.
These actions will be progressed in 2026 and further information is available at the following link:
www.gov.ie/en/department-of-housing-local-government-and-heritage/publications/enabling-more-housing/#activating-supply
