Jen Cummins
Ceist:222. Deputy Jen Cummins asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage his plans to increase housing supply to ensure it matches the pace of population growth. [44664/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraThursday, 11 June 2026
Ceisteanna (222)
Freagraí scríofa
Delivering Homes, Building Communities seeks to significantly accelerate delivery of new homes by focusing on activating land and creating the optimal environment to encourage housing activity – including regulatory reform, tax incentives and the largest ever capital investment in the history of the State, with €275 billion invested in infrastructure over ten years through the National Development Plan.
The unprecedented level of investment Government has committed will bring about a very significant scale up in the delivery of housing over the coming years, address the needs of the most vulnerable in our communities, make buying and renting homes more affordable and support the development of villages, towns and cities across the country.
The recently revised National Planning Framework is a major step forward and will help increase capacity and accelerate home building across the country, while the new Housing Activation Office (HAO) will work to address infrastructure barriers to housing delivery as a matter of priority. The HAO is now operational and co-ordinating and accelerating the delivery of infrastructure projects that are essential to unlocking housing development on sites nationwide, including through the new infrastructure fund.
Budget 2026 included a suite of taxation measures aimed at stimulating the supply of new apartments including a reduced VAT rate on the sale of new apartments and an enhanced Corporation Tax deduction for apartment construction costs.
The Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2025 is essential legislation to deal with expiring planning permissions and to encourage activation of housing.
Supply has increased significantly over recent years. Over the last five years, almost 153,000 new homes have been delivered. This compares with 83,262 in the previous five-year period and just 29,278 in the five-years before that (Q1 2012-Q1 2016).
Increasing the supply of new homes is critical to alleviating pressures in the housing market, helping to moderate price growth and ease affordability challenges across the country, ensuring everyone has a range of housing options available to them, whether they want to buy a house, rent one, or are in need of social housing