Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 1 April 2025
488. Deputy Joe Cooney asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the steps his Department has taken to identify zoned, serviced lands owned by local authorities that could be utilised for delivery of social and affordable housing in that local authority; the area of such lands and numbers of housing, by local authority area; and whether those lands are the subject of applications for funding to his Department. [15594/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraHousing for All includes measures to support local authorities to acquire the necessary land required in order to meet social and affordable targets. As part of the measures Local Authorities began updating and providing details of their respective Landbanks. The National Social Housing Data Map was established by the Department in conjunction with the Local Authorities to capture this data. Details provided included land available for both social and affordable housing.
Each local authority was required to prepare a Housing Delivery Action Plan. This Plan sets out details of both social and affordable housing delivery as appropriate over the period 2022-2026, in line with targets set under Housing for All. The plans have been published on local authorities’ own websites.
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.
It should be noted in the first instance that the zoning of land within a development plan or a local area plan is not broken down on the basis of individual sites or parcels of land in individual ownerships.
However, the Land Development Agency (LDA) has developed the State Lands Database which provides a detailed and mapped representation of the extent and location of lands owned by public bodies, including local authorities in Ireland.
The constraints and limitations with difficulties regarding data and ongoing land registration means that the LDA will continue to update the State Lands Database to take account of information from local authorities and other public bodies on entries/records provided, and as new publicly owned sites are added to the webmap.
Details of the zoning status of lands identified in the State Lands Database are available as part of the information provided by the LDA. This zoning information is sourced from the MyPlan.ie platform which amalgamates the zoning information from statutory City and County Development Plans nationally.
The LDA has also completed the Register of Relevant Lands, being lands owned by local authorities and bodies listed under Schedule 1 and 2 of the Land Development Agency Act 2021, in urban population areas greater than 10,000. Both the State Lands Database and the Register of Relevant Lands are also available in an online map format on the LDA website at the following link: https://lda.ie/register-of-relevant-lands/map/
Where a local authority is seeking to deliver social housing, Exchequer funding is made available under the Social Housing Investment Programme (SHIP), my Department provides 100% of these costs to local authorities including the site costs.
Support from the Affordable Housing Fund is available to all local authorities to deliver affordable purchase and cost rental homes where an affordable housing need is evidenced.
In addition, the Housing for All Land Acquisition Fund was established in 2022 to support local authorities to acquire land to deliver new build social housing schemes and this was extended in 2024 to include land for affordable housing. The fund has an overall allocation of €239m and is managed by the Housing Agency.
The table below indicates the number of potential units in each local authority according to The National Social Housing Data Map. This includes lands that are zoned residential or mixed use and are either fully serviced or partially serviced. It would be a matter for the individual local authority to confirm when these sites are likely to be brought forward for development as this level of detail would not be held by my Department.
|
LA |
Number of Sites |
Total Potential Units |
SH Units |
AH Units |
|
Carlow |
5 |
200 |
190 |
10 |
|
Cavan |
2 |
22 |
22 |
0 |
|
Clare |
7 |
306 |
206 |
100 |
|
Cork City |
4 |
774 |
774 |
0 |
|
Cork County |
9 |
295 |
225 |
70 |
|
DLR |
8 |
488 |
464 |
24 |
|
Donegal |
19 |
681 |
681 |
0 |
|
Dublin City |
77 |
7,803 |
3,947 |
3,856 |
|
Fingal |
8 |
597 |
125 |
472 |
|
Galway City |
10 |
530 |
334 |
196 |
|
Galway County |
12 |
350 |
206 |
144 |
|
Kerry |
12 |
513 |
213 |
300 |
|
Kildare |
8 |
95 |
95 |
0 |
|
Kilkenny |
8 |
87 |
66 |
21 |
|
Laois |
9 |
101 |
101 |
0 |
|
Leitrim |
2 |
18 |
18 |
0 |
|
Limerick |
44 |
776 |
593 |
183 |
|
Longford |
12 |
16 |
16 |
0 |
|
Louth |
5 |
263 |
263 |
0 |
|
Mayo |
23 |
373 |
358 |
15 |
|
Meath |
14 |
156 |
141 |
15 |
|
Monaghan |
4 |
123 |
98 |
25 |
|
Offaly |
15 |
173 |
173 |
0 |
|
Roscommon |
5 |
120 |
120 |
0 |
|
Sligo |
7 |
108 |
108 |
0 |
|
South Dublin |
4 |
2,072 |
923 |
1,149 |
|
Tipperary |
23 |
433 |
377 |
56 |
|
Waterford |
7 |
89 |
79 |
10 |
|
Westmeath |
10 |
266 |
240 |
26 |
|
Wexford |
6 |
41 |
41 |
0 |
|
Wicklow |
11 |
385 |
385 |
0 |
|
Total |
390 |
18,254 |
11,582 |
6,672 |
