The Government’s new housing plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025-2030, includes measures which will increase delivery of housing for older people through increased delivery of social housing, increased delivery of more suitable homes in private housing and increased choice to support voluntary rightsizing. Government is committed to increasing housing available to older people to facilitate ageing in place with dignity and independence and to supporting rightsizing on a voluntary basis.
Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025-2030, includes a Government commitment to work collaboratively through the establishment of a cooperation framework between the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Department of Health on the integration of health and social care supports and housing for older people. This will include consideration of the learnings from the Richmond Place, Inchicore Pilot Model of supported housing for older people from both Departments' perspective, including the evaluations of this pilot project underway to inform policy in this area.
Under Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025-2030, housing for older people is being continually delivered under the programmes managed by my Department, whereby Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) and local authorities can advance housing proposals for older people.
The design of the Inchicore pilot predates the publication by my Department of the 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 AHBs, and their consultants, on the design of social housing including the internal layouts of individual social homes and its use is now mandatory for all new build social housing, following a Government decision in July 2025. The Design manual provides guidance and examples of a range of housing options including appropriate housing choices for smaller sized households, such as the increasing number of older people who want to remain in their community. The Design Manual includes specific Universal design (UD) internal layouts developed with the input of the Centre for Excellence in Universal Design.
