Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 18 December 2025
528. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of households on the social housing waiting list and the number in emergency accommodation in County Waterford at the end of 2023, 2024 and 2025, in tabular form. [73726/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department’s role in relation to homelessness involves the provision of a national framework of policy, legislation and funding to underpin the role of local authorities in addressing homelessness at local level. Statutory responsibility in relation to the provision of accommodation and related services for homeless persons rests with individual local authorities.
Details on the number of households qualified for social housing support in each local authority administrative area is provided in the annual statutory Summary of Social Housing Assessments (SSHA). The most recently published summary for all counties, conducted in November 2024, and all summaries since 2011, are available on my Department's website at: www.gov.ie/en/collection/62486-summary-of-social-housing-assessments/
The 2024 Summary shows that there were 59,941 households qualified for social housing whose need had not yet been met nationally. The SSHA 2025 process is currently underway and I expect to publish the summary report before the end of Q1 2026, to cover 2025 data.
The Government's new Housing Plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities aims to deliver 300,000 new homes in the period to 2030, including 72,000 social homes. The Plan seeks to significantly scale-up delivery of new build social homes over the coming years, increasing from an average of 8,000 or so homes a year at present to an average of 12,000 per year.
Under the new Plan each local authority will prepare a Housing Delivery Action Plan (HDAP) setting out their planned delivery of social and affordable housing out to 2030 in line with targets which will be set by my Department in order to ensure the 72,000 social homes will be delivered by 2030. My Department will be communicating with local authorities in this regard in Q1 2026.
My Department currently gathers and publishes data on a monthly basis on the number of homeless persons accommodated in emergency accommodation funded and overseen by local authorities. These reports are based on data provided by local authorities, produced through the Pathway Accommodation & Support System (PASS).
While responsibility for the provision of homeless accommodation and related services rests with individual housing authorities, the administration of homeless services is organised on a regional basis with a lead authority in place for each region. County Waterford is included in the South East region for the purposes of homeless administration, with Waterford City and County Council as lead authority.
The monthly homelessness report includes details of individuals, families and the dependants of these families who accessed emergency accommodation during the relevant count week of the month in question. The report also includes the number of adults in emergency accommodation by age band and region. The most recently published data is in respect of October 2025. The reports are collated on a regional basis and are available on my Department's website at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/department-of-housing-local-government-and-heritage/collections/homelessness-data/, and are also published to the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digialisation's open data portal: data.gov.ie/
