Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 8 October 2025
64. Deputy Rory Hearne asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage his plans to implement a State savings scheme, similar to the Social Democrats' homes for Ireland State savings scheme, to fund the delivery of affordable housing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53900/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Government committed in January 2025 to introduce an all of government national housing plan to follow Housing for All, underpinned by multi-annual funding. As part of this, all Departments have examined potential actions to further scale up the delivery of homes of all tenures.
A programme of targeted stakeholder engagement has been undertaken. Written submissions have been received from across Government and from a range of external stakeholders including state agencies, the community and voluntary sector, industry and academics. These submissions have been carefully considered. I have also met with many stakeholders to hear first-hand what actions they think should be reflected in the Plan.
There is a high rate of savings in the State and indeed the high savings deposit rate we see in Ireland today reflects the success of our economy in recent years. Some stakeholders have suggested that more could be done to harness those domestic savings to fund housing delivery, including introducing a state savings scheme similar to the Livret A model in France.
I would like thank to Deputy Hearne for providing the Social Democrats “Homes for Ireland’ State savings scheme proposal which puts forward a similar model to provide capital for the delivery of affordable homes.
As the area of savings comes under the remit of the Minister for Finance, I have asked my Department to engage with his Department to establish the potential benefits of the introduction of any further new savings scheme specific to housing over and above the products which are already available to the public.
