I thank the Deputy for this important question around targets for the delivery of cost-rental and affordable purchase homes by local authorities, approved housing bodies and the LDA under the Government's new housing plan. Affordability and the chance to own a home is at the heart of Government's housing policy, as embodied within the new housing plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025-2030. Government is investing an unprecedented level of funding to support new housing delivery, which will underpin the new starter homes programme, delivering an average of 15,000 affordable housing supports annually to 2030. To further drive the delivery of affordable housing under the plan, local authorities will shortly commence the preparation of new housing delivery action plans. It is intended that the plans will set out how the starter homes programme will be implemented in each area, including the full suite of affordable housing supports to be provided and taking account of local and national affordability needs. They should be responsive to the housing system landscape in each area, as it is evident that starter homes supports needs and requirements vary by location. The preparation of housing delivery action plans for starter homes will be undertaken by local authorities, in close collaboration with their delivery partners, including the LDA, and approved housing bodies. Each local authority's starter homes programme, as outlined in its housing delivery action plan, will be informed by the housing needs and demand assessment framework, which will assist in identifying and quantifying new housing need with affordability constraint within their administrative area. Quarterly housing delivery reports will continue to be published on the Department's website, tracking the progress of affordable delivery output in each local authority area. The delivery of 300,000 homes and 15,000 starter homes supports, over the lifetime of the plan, is ambitious but it is achievable.
Sentiment score: 0.41
We have targets of 300,000 new homes overall, including 15,000 affordable homes annually, and each local authority is now working on their housing delivery action plans. They are looking at and working with their partners as well to ensure they can meet the Government's target of delivering homes. That is what we are doing and that is how we will deliver the homes.
Sentiment score: 0.22
We have not abandoned it. We have our key target of 300,000 new homes and 15,000 affordable homes. What we have learned over the last number of years is that we need to be flexible in figuring out exactly how we are going to manage to deliver the affordable homes that people need across this country. We do have a plan, which is clearly set out and was launched only very recently, with the methods and the means by which we are going to deliver social homes and affordable homes and increase the activity of private homes that also need to be delivered. Without the private investment to deliver private homes, we are never going to solve the housing crisis because we are never going to be able to deliver enough homes. The supply of homes is what is crucial here. We have our target of 15,000 affordable homes annually. This is what we are working towards as we go through each local authority and as we look at the national landscape, for how we can best and most quickly deliver that. Rather than getting obsessed about the minutiae of small targets, we look at how we can unleash the deliverability of homes. My purpose and my aim is to ensure that people can get access to a home.
Sentiment score: 0.15
I thank the Deputy for his question on derelict site levies. The introduction of a derelict property tax was announced in budget 2026 and it is intended to introduce legislation providing for the tax in the Finance Act in 2026. The tax will, when it comes into effect, replace the derelict site levy and be collected by the Revenue Commissioners. Action 4.1 of Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025-2030 addresses the new tax measure. Local authorities will, however, continue to have a role in the process, as updating and maintaining their derelict sites registers will continue to remain the responsibility of local authorities. Derelict site levies that remain outstanding when the new tax is introduced will remain as a charge on the properties concerned and remain the responsibility of each local authority to collect. My Department is working on a number of measures to increase staffing levels in the local government planning sector. In this regard, my Department is collaborating with the Local Government Management Agency on the delivery of programme supports to planning authorities. These supports include the provision of staffing resources and expertise to enable planning authorities to perform their functions effectively and efficiently. Resources to ensure a focus on tackling dereliction within the local authorities have also been provided through the funding of dedicated vacant homes officers and town regeneration officers, who are working in relevant dereliction and regeneration teams to ensure a planned and a proactive approach is taken. My Department has also made funding for staff resources available to local authorities as part of call 3 of the urban regeneration and development fund to support their work tackling vacancy and dereliction, while a total of €150 million has been provided as a revolving fund for local authorities to acquire long-term derelict properties where necessary. Since 2023, the compulsory purchase order, CPO, activation programme has also provided support to local authorities in identifying derelict properties and engaging with owners to bring those properties back into use. It includes the use of compulsory purchase powers under the Derelict Sites Act when engagement with property owners is unsuccessful, and is supported directly by my Department and the Housing Agency.
Sentiment score: 0.37
I am very familiar with the streets of Dublin and the streets of Cork. The Deputy might have noticed while walking the streets of Cork himself the extraordinary amount of money and regeneration going on in Cork city as a result of Government investment into it. If it was the case that compulsory purchase orders were that difficult, we would see a consistent problem with them across the State. However, some local authorities are using them to very effective use, while others are not. That tells me that local authorities have different priorities. Some are using their priorities to target compulsory purchase orders to tackle dereliction and some are not. We have decided to now bring in the Revenue Commissioners to target dereliction. As far as I am concerned, dereliction is antisocial behaviour. Anyone who has a derelict property and is not doing anything with it is little more than a rent seeker. I do not care whether you are left wing or right wing; nobody can justify that kind of rent seeking because those properties are going up in value as the State invests money and as people invest money around it. I am determined to tackle dereliction and those who hold onto properties that are derelict. Giving power to the Revenue Commissioners is crucial to that.
Sentiment score: 0.04
I thank the Deputy. I think he needs to work on his maths. Fianna Fáil has only been back in government since 2020, so they are-----
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Name me a Fianna Fáil Minister from that period. The Deputy cannot.
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The Deputy can have his spin and his guff - that is fine - but the reality is that we are taking very real action to challenge derelict sites across this country. They are a blight and they are antisocial behaviour. There is no more powerful statement to say we are tackling it than bringing in the Revenue Commissioners to ensure that anybody with a derelict property is going to face very real and serious charges. We have the 7% but the problem is that it is not being applied to derelict sites by local authorities across the country. I accept there are local authorities that are under pressure for staffing. That is not a criticism of local authorities although you can see the significant variation between different local authorities and they are making their own priorities in terms of what they are doing. From my perspective this is a serious statement.
Sentiment score: 0.06
Following on from a review of the private rental sector published by my Department in July 2024, the Housing Agency was commissioned to undertake a comprehensive review of the current system of rent controls using RPZs. The key focus of the review was to assess the operation of RPZs since their introduction and consider their impact on the market and relevant stakeholders, including the retention of landlords and new investment. It considered whether RPZs should continue without change or be removed, modified or replaced. The review, which was extensive and detailed, also included options and recommendations in relation to potential amendments to rent control. On 10 June 2025, the Government approved policy measures including modifications to rent controls to come into effect on 1 March 2026 in order to boost investment in the supply of homes available for rent and keep existing landlords in the market. The modifications to rent controls have been informed by the findings of the Housing Agency review. The policy measures announced by the Government also include significant improvements in security of tenure for renters. The Government has provided additional resources to the Residential Tenancies Board to support the efficient regulation of the rental market. Multiple expert reports, including those from the Housing Agency, the Department of Finance, the ESRI, the OECD and the IMF agree that the current RPZ system is a major obstacle to increasing rental supply. These changes are being introduced in order to attract increased investment in the rental market and thereby increase the supply of properties available for renters. My Department has consulted extensively with the Office of the Attorney General in relation to the proposed legislation. On 14 October 2025, the Government approved the general scheme of the residential tenancies (amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2025. This legislation is now subject to priority legal drafting and pre-legislative scrutiny is currently under way.
Sentiment score: 0.25
When the Deputy was quoting the statistics from the RTB he left out the fact that in the situation that prevailed in the country at the time around rent pressure zones, it was temporary and partial around the country. We have now created a national rent pressure zone with a view to a national rental control situation. Also, the reason I am bringing in these changes is to bring in, for the first time in this State, security of tenure for tenants. That does not exist in this State. Theoretically, there are tenancies with no end of duration but it is too easy to end those tenancies. We are severely restricting how tenancies can be ended by landlords. That is to ensure there is that security of tenure. I believe that you will see far less frequent notices to quit as a result of this security of tenure being brought in for tenants. That is going to be the crucial difference here.
Sentiment score: 0.09
What is crucial is that those who are currently renting and those who are living at home who need somewhere to rent have somewhere to rent. That means increasing supply. That is what-----
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An increased supply of all tenures, including social, affordable and private houses and apartments.
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We have to drive supply. That will in turn bring about the end of homelessness, so we have the properties that people will live in. It will also drive down rents by increasing supply.
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We have seen that in the past when the supply increases.
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That is what is crucial from my perspective, delivering the homes that are needed. While the Deputy has endless criticisms of everything that is being done across here-----
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You have to have solutions as well, Deputy. This is the usual from Sinn Féin. When you are saying something-----
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The Deputy is the only person embarrassing himself.
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It is the usual tactic from Sinn Féin in the lifetime of this Government. When somebody is saying something and you do not want it heard-----
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-----you talk them down and shout over them. You shout over them because you do not want anybody to hear. It is a really underhanded tactic.
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You should respect people's democratic right to speak in this Chamber. I am elected the same as you.
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I am elected the same as you and I have a right to speak.
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You have to respect people's right. You do not have to like what I have to say but you should allow me to say it.
Sentiment score: 0.34
I thank Deputy McGrath for raising this important question about the key measures I and the Government will be taking to support first-time buyers under Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025-2030. I thank the Deputy for his regular engagement on this important issue for his constituents. The Government’s new housing plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025-2030 sets out a broad range of measures which will activate and accelerate new homes delivery and provide affordable housing supports. The new plan, which has a strong focus on deliverability, removes structural barriers to homebuilding, unlocking land, reforming planning, delivering infrastructure and creating conditions for investment. The Government is investing an unprecedented level of funding to support housing supply, which will underpin, inter alia, the new starter homes programme, delivering an average of 15,000 affordable housing supports annually to 2030. We are making homes accessible and affordable, increasing social and affordable housing output and improving rental security. The plan supports homeownership while revitalising villages, towns and cities. In addition to a keen focus on tackling vacancy and dereliction, the plan provides for an expanded remit for the Land Development Agency, working to extend the first home and help to buy schemes to 2030, an increase in affordable cost-rental tenancies, an expanded local authority delivered starter homes for purchase programme that will see an increase in affordable homes for purchase nationwide and a new support for those creating living over the shop homes. The Government has introduced several schemes to help first-time home seekers to buy or rent homes. Since 2021, close to 16,900 affordable housing supports have been provided via these measures nationwide. These supports will be retained, streamlined and expanded under the umbrella of a new starter homes programme to further tackle the issues of supply and affordability and ensure that first-time buyers and renters all over the country in need of assistance are supported by the Government.
Sentiment score: 0.60
Scheme criteria and support levels for affordable purchase schemes are kept under regular review, taking account of developments in the housing market. It is a complex and dynamic situation to ensure that we can provide the necessary affordable supports for people to be able to purchase their homes without affecting the market and driving up the cost of delivery and affordability on people. I hear the Deputy's concerns and will continue to engage with him to keep these affordability measures under review.
Sentiment score: 0.50
Again, I thank Deputy Séamus McGrath for raising the concerns around affordability, in particular around Cork city and Cork county. As I said, these schemes will continue to be kept under review to ensure that there are those affordability mechanisms in place and that people in Cork can afford to access the starter homes programme on an equal and equitable level with the rest of the country.
Sentiment score: 0.37
You do not want to listen to the answer.
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