Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 4 December 2025
334. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if his Department has completed any assessment of the staffing, technical and financial resources required by local authorities to achieve the 12,000-unit annual target; and if he will provide his Department's internal modelling for required engineering, planning, procurement and project-management capacity. [68745/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraDelivering Homes, Building Communities commits to supporting local authorities by financially supporting fully resourced and ring fenced housing delivery teams in each authority focused exclusively on new build social and affordable housing projects. This builds on the commitment in Housing for All to strengthen the capacity of local authorities to initiate, design, plan, develop and manage housing projects.
Following extensive work undertaken to identify the additional capital staff resources required by local authorities to deliver the social housing targets set out in Housing for All, funding was approved for 250 technical and administrative housing posts in local authorities nationally to support social housing delivery.
My Department has also worked with the Housing Delivery Coordination Office and the County and City Management Association to identify additional staffing resources required by local authorities to support affordable housing delivery programmes. Funding provision has been made and sanction granted for a complement of 140.5 additional specialist and administrative positions across 27 local authorities to help ramp up affordable housing delivery. These posts are solely dedicated to affordable housing delivery and equip local authorities with increased levels of in-house expertise in key areas such as design, procurement, surveying, engineering and administration.
The City & County Management Association (CCMA) is currently leading on a dedicated working group focused on determining what additional local authority staffing resources may be required to deliver on social and affordable new build housing delivery targets to 2030. The working group was established earlier this year between the sector and the Department and is expected to report on its initial findings in Q1 2026.
Engagement with the CCMA group will ensure a comprehensive and strategic overview of national and individual requirements to ensure local authorities have sufficient resources to deliver on the Delivering Homes Building Communities Plan.
My Department is also currently working on a number of measures to increase staffing levels in the local government planning sector. In this regard, my Department is collaborating with the Local Government Management Agency on the delivery of a programme of supports to planning authorities. These supports include the provision of staffing resources and expertise to enable planning authorities to perform their functions efficiently and effectively.
In October 2023, my Department conveyed approval to the filling of an initial 100 posts, subsequently increased to 101 posts, in the local authority planning sector under the first tranche of a programme of supports for planning resources. A further approval issued in January 2025 for 56 graduate planner posts and 56 staff officer posts to support the Planning function within local authorities.
Consideration is currently being given to a business case received by the LGMA for a phase 3 of supports for further planning positions within the local government sector which will include a summer internship programme in 2026. Discussions are ongoing in this regard.
On 15 October 2024, my Department published a Ministerial Action Plan on Planning Resources to respond to capacity challenges in the planning sector. This Action Plan provides a detailed roadmap to increase the pool of planning and related expertise needed to ensure a planning system fit for future needs. It sets out 14 high-level actions that provide a coordinated pathway to ensure a sustainable pipeline of planning and related expertise into the future, addressing the areas of education, recruitment and retention, as well as measures to encourage greater innovation and efficiency.
It should be noted that, under Section 159 of the Local Government Act 2001, each Chief Executive is responsible for the staffing and organisational arrangements necessary for carrying out the functions of the local authority for which he/she is responsible including progressing appointments that have been sanctioned by my Department as appropriate. My Department oversees workforce planning for the local government sector, including the monitoring of local government sector employment levels.
