Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 19 May 2026
196. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if it will be ensured that the current rezoning project being carried out by local authorities will result in the social and affordable housing that is needed across the State; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37550/26]
View answerThe First Revision to the National Planning Framework (NPF) was finalised and approved by Government and the Oireachtas in April 2025. The NPF identifies the need to plan for approximately 50,000 additional households per annum to 2040.
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 require 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 been requested to address the scope for additional provision of up to 50% in excess of the baseline figure, in light of the urgent need to increase housing delivery, and to optimise the ability to deliver on the housing requirements of the NPF.
Planning authorities are currently assessing their respective development plans and undertaking a review of the adequacy of existing zoned lands in their functional area to cater for the new Housing Growth Requirements and the potential for ‘additional provision’.
To date, 28 variation processes have been commenced, with 12 of those either partially or fully completed. The remaining local authorities have presented a Chief Executive’s report to elected members setting out their proposed response to the Guidelines and will commence the variation process in due course.
The zoning of land for particular purposes, including residential development, is an exercise undertaken by planning authorities as part of their overall statutory plan-making function and is a reserved function of the elected members.
With regard to social and affordable housing, the Government’s Housing Action Plan Delivering Homes, Building Communities aims to deliver an average of 12,000 social homes and 15,000 affordable housing supports under the Starter Homes Programme annually to 2030.
To achieve this, all local authorities will shortly commence preparing their Housing Delivery Action Plans (HDAPs), for review by my Department, setting out their planned delivery of social and affordable housing to 2030. The preparation of HDAPs will be undertaken by local authorities in collaboration with their delivery partners, including the Land Development Agency, Approved Housing Bodies, and the development sector.
Existing HDAPs run to the end of 2026 and are currently published on individual local authority websites. It is expected that new HDAPs, which will run to 2030, will be in place by the end of the year and will also be published by each individual local authority once finalised.
