I propose to take Questions Nos. 659 to 664, inclusive, together.
My Department jointly published the National Housing Strategy for Disabled People (NHSDP) 2022-2027 and Implementation Plan with the Department of Health and the Department of Children, Disability, and Equality. The Strategy and Implementation Plan may be accessed on my Department’s website at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/publication/60d76-national-housing-strategy-for-disabled-people-2022-2027/
The Implementation Plan sets out the actions to achieve the vision of the joint Strategy for delivering housing and related supports for disabled people to 2027 operating under the new housing plan Delivering Homes, Building Communities.
Delivering Homes, Building Communities aims to deliver 300,000 new homes by the end of 2030, including 72,000 social homes and 90,000 affordable housing supports by the end of 2030. To achieve this, the largest ever housing budget in the history of the State has been secured in 2026, with in excess of €9 billion in capital funding through the Exchequer, the Land Development Agency (LDA) and the Housing Finance Agency (HFA). Government is fully committed to working with all stakeholders to deliver social, affordable and cost rental homes at scale and to continue accelerating housing supply across all tenures.
Local authorities play a key role in the planning and provision of social housing in their areas, and decide on the number and types of dwellings to provide, based on identified need including disabled people.
Under Delivering Homes, Building Communities, each local authority will prepare a new Housing Delivery Action Plan (HDAP), reflecting local need identified including within the Housing Needs and Demand Assessment Framework. Within this broad framework, evidence-informed local authority HDAPs provide a detailed picture of the quantum, type, size and location of social homes to be delivered by local authorities and AHBs. Learning from the first round of these plans will help inform and strengthen the next iteration of plans and set clear targets against which local authority and AHB delivery will be benchmarked to 2030. This will include minimum targets for quantity, type and size of social homes; for example, identifying housing for priority groups including disabled persons.
All local authorities have Housing and Disability Steering Groups (HDSGs) whose role is to put in place strategic plans for housing for disabled people and to monitor activity under these plans. The HDSGs are representative of disabled people as well as the Health Services Executive, the local authority and Approved Housing Bodies and are a key driver of the provision of housing for disabled people at local level.
Separately, my Department published a Design Manual for Quality Housing (the Design Manual) which
is available on my Department’s website at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/publication/b3e02-design-manual-for-quality-housing/
The Design Manual is intended to guide local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies, and their consultants, on the design of social housing including the internal layouts of individual social homes. The Design Manual includes guidance on the approach to ‘Housing for People with Disability’ (Section 5.3.2) and specific design approaches developed with the input of the Centre for Excellence in Universal Design. My Department is working with all local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies to utilise this Design Manual for all new build social housing projects.
The Design Manual contains the H15 unit type, which is a design approach for a Group Home or Community Dwelling usually used in the provision of housing for people with intellectual disability. There are currently three variations on the H15 design in the Design Manual for Quality Housing.
Housing for disabled people is funded under the capital schemes for local authority housing through the Social Housing Investment Programme (SHIP) and, in particular, the AHBs through the Capital Assistance Scheme (CAS) for the provision of independent living accommodation to meet the needs of people with specific categories of needs, including disabled people.
Between 2022 and 2024 a total of €54.9 million of CAS funding has been provided by the Department and 280 units of housing for disabled people were delivered in those 3 years.
Any organisation registered as an AHB with the Approved Housing Bodies Regulatory Authority is eligible to apply for funding from the Department, once they meet the minimum criteria for eligibility for funding. Section 25 of the Housing (Regulation of Approved Housing Bodies) Act 2019 outlines the eligibility criteria for an organisation seeking to become an AHB, information on these criteria is available on the Regulator’s website at: www.ahbregulator.ie/registration/eligibility-registration/
Organisations seeking to become AHBs should contact the Approved Housing Bodies Regulatory Authority.
My Department, in conjunction with local authorities and AHBs, continue to work and engage with the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, and the HSE within the framework of the National Housing Strategy for Disabled People 2022-2027. This is to ensure the coordinated provision of independent living accommodation to meet the needs of disabled people, in conjunction with the delivery of the disability services supports for independent living for disabled people which is the responsibility of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and the HSE.
