Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 22 January 2026
217. Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the reforms he is making to cut delays and improve delivery times for social housing projects; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5011/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs sponsoring agencies, it is the responsibility of Local Authorities and Approved Housing Bodies to progress projects through the project lifecycle. My Department remains committed to supporting projects which are put forward and deal with submissions in a timely and efficient manner.
Timeframes for delivery of social housing can be impacted by a number of factors including construction material costs, supply chain issues and the impacts of interest rate movements. At a local level, complexities such as legal issues, retendering projects, reviewing the viability of projects, infrastructure challenges and judicial review of planning permissions can also have an impact.
This Government remains committed to increasing housing delivery and a key focus of the social housing programme is to increase the number of new-build homes.
The newly established Housing Activation Office (HAO) will identify and seek to address barriers to the delivery of public infrastructure projects required to enable housing development, through the alignment of funding; and co-ordination of infrastructure providers.
I announced this month, the new ‘single approval’ process for all new build social housing projects up to a value of €200m, this will support local authorities to streamline processes and encourage delivery of larger new build social housing developments.
Delivering Homes, Building Communities supports additional social housing delivery by mandating the use of standard house layouts and specifications as part of the new approval process and facilitate the use of Modern Methods of Construction through a standardised design approach. This measure combined with a Design and Build contract approach will enable local authorities and AHBs to expedite the delivery of social housing.
To incentivise local authorities to deliver more ‘own build’ projects, a new performance fund will be established. Where a local authority exceeds their ‘own build’ target they will receive additional discretionary funding for the delivery of community and placemaking initiatives and projects.
In addition, ring-fenced 'new-build' housing delivery teams in each local authority dedicated to own build new social and affordable housing delivery will be fully funded by my Department through reimbursement to local authorities on a performance pay basis.
In addition to these measures, this Government will establish a revamped contractor-led renewal programme focused on tackling dereliction and vacancy.
