I propose to take Questions Nos. 10 and 36 together. The drafting of the apartment and duplex defects remediation Bill is progressing. Various issues requiring legal advice are under consideration. The Bill is included in the Government legislation summer programme and I intend to seek Government approval to publish it shortly. The general scheme will be made available to undergo pre-legislative scrutiny as soon as is practicable and I anticipate this happening in autumn 2025. When established, the statutory scheme will provide supports for the remediation of relevant fire safety, structural safety and water ingress defects in purpose-built apartment buildings, including duplexes, constructed between 1991 and 2013. It is envisaged that 100% of eligible remediation costs will be funded under the scheme. The interim remediation scheme for the funding of emergency fire safety defect works in apartments and duplexes, constructed between 1991 and 2013, opened to applications from owners' management companies on 11 December 2023. The interim remediation scheme is being administered by the Housing Agency on a nationwide basis and provides for the full funding of interim measures to provide an acceptable level of fire safety in buildings, pending completion of the full remedial works under the statutory scheme. As of 31 May 2025, a total of 207 applications to the interim remediation scheme are being progressed across 29 local authorities, representing a total of 19,574 residential units.
Sentiment score: 0.05
The aim is to get the work done as quickly as possible. Regarding the interim scheme, four pathfinder projects covering almost 600 residential units have been identified. These projects are progressing and will allow the mapping of the application of the remediation process into simple steps to identify the pinch points and their solutions and to provide consistency across the submissions by competent professions and related local authority fire services. The pathfinder projects identified some issues in terms of it. That was the whole idea of the pathfinder projects, as they progressed, to see where there was going to be pinch points where there may be issues with the remediation scheme. The Department is working with the Housing Agency to co-ordinate and oversee the administration of this scheme. There have been some issues, including with tendering. We got some clarification on that today, but I am happy to brief both Deputies on any further clarification and on progress. It is being updated on a daily basis at this point. We can try to resolve the tender issue without it leading to further delay. The indication last week was that it might lead to some significant delay. The sense is that this has been rectified but I will have further clarity in the coming days. It is a live issue at the moment. I am happy to keep both Deputies updated as we move along on it.
Sentiment score: 0.18
I acknowledge that there has been some delay with the drafting. Some of that has arisen as a result of the Housing Agency receiving legal advice outlining the provision of the funding by the agency to oversee it is likely to trigger a requirement to comply with public procurement law. The Attorney General subsequently confirmed the need to align the application process in compliance with EU procurement rules. The application process has subsequently been amended and the dynamic purchasing system for appointment of competent professionals has been developed for launch within the next few years. Contract builders will now be procured via the e-tender system using a public works contract. This change and other clarifications have led to the delayed drafting of the Bill. I understand these people are living in a sense of fear. I have engaged with several of these families and the representative body. I am determined to get this resolved. I do not want this delayed any further. I am personally dealing with this situation because I understand the stress and the worry that people are going through. We will get this resolved as quickly as possible. No funding has been drawn down yet.
Sentiment score: -0.04
The programme for Government commits to the introduction of a new, all-of-government national housing plan to follow Housing for All, underpinned by multi-annual funding. This plan will take a whole-of-government approach, as Housing for All did. My Department is engaging across government to agree the high-level measures to be included in the plan. They must be supported by the required funding in the national development plan. The timing of its publication will be aligned with the outcome of the national development plan review process currently being undertaken by my colleague, the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Sector Reform and Digitalisation. I am committed to its finalisation and publication as soon as possible. Meanwhile the important work of this Government proceeds, and as Minister supporting the delivery of new homes, it is my key priority, and I am looking at using every means available to do so. Almost €6.8 billion, a record level of funding, has been provided by the Government for the delivery of housing in 2025. In recent months, the revised national planning framework was approved, An Coimisiún Pleanála was established with a new chairperson appointed and rent pressure zones have been expanded and extended nationwide as part of measures to secure the supply of rental accommodation and promote investment in housing. I have also recently issued the next call for expressions under the croí cónaithe cities scheme. The new national housing plan, which will be published in the coming months, will build on the measures we have introduced to date and set us on a sustainable path to meeting our housing needs nationally. We do need the national development plan first. It is simply common sense to publish a housing plan that includes the NDP, finalised after its publication. Then we can publish the new national housing plan.
Sentiment score: 0.18
The Deputy's proposal a number of weeks ago was simply to write blank cheques for local authorities. That is not a solution. We have to manage our finances and we have only a certain amount of funding. We want those voids brought back in but, as the Deputy will recall, one of the properties was a property that could not be let because it had not had a stairs for five years. There is no reason or rationale for that to be the case. On the rest of the housing plan, we will have this housing plan done as quickly as possible. We have gone back to building social houses. We are encouraging local authorities to build as much social housing as possible. Today we published the delivery rate of various local authorities. It is extraordinary to see with some local authorities, even side by side to each other, how some can deliver as little as 3% own-build housing while others are above 40%. The ability is there. The local authorities that are actually delivering large amounts of social housing own-builds show that the Government is backing the local authorities where those local authorities are determined to build those social houses. We will continue to back those but we want to encourage the other local authorities to rise up to meet the top standard that some of those other local authorities are delivering.
Sentiment score: 0.14
I am treating it as an emergency. The number seeking social housing is increasing, as it is for cost-rental and affordable and private housing, because the population of this country is exploding as a result of the successful economic steerage of this country. It is a good thing that our population is increasing as a result of our economy. It puts more pressure on me and the Government to deliver even more housing and we are going to do that to meet the increasing population needs. I acknowledge that we need more social housing. There is no question about that. I am determined to deliver more. That is why today I got Government agreement to end the four-stage process and the three-stage and two-stage processes. We will have only a single-stage process for local authorities to deliver social housing so that those local authorities that are determined to build social housing will be able to do so. We have increased the ceiling from €8 billion to €200 billion, which is a significant increase as well. The local authorities that want to build can build. They can build at the moment, but now they will be able to build even more quickly.
Sentiment score: 0.17
I thank Deputy Sheehan for asking when funding will be made available for a project. This is the shortfall of €5 million to cover infrastructure for the Mungret LDA development of 250 units in Limerick. The Deputy's question relates to the development of the lands at the former Mungret College, which is a key strategic priority for Limerick City and County Council. The site will see the delivery of 250 affordable and social homes, together with community and crèche facilities over a three- to four-year period. This includes the proposed development of 181 affordable purchase homes and two community dwellings for people with disabilities in partnership with the Land Development Agency and homes for older people and a crèche being delivered by the approved housing body Clúid. Funding approval from the affordable housing fund is in place to support the delivery of the 181 affordable purchase homes by the LDA. However, Limerick City and County Council has advised my Department that an additional funding requirement has arisen for enabling infrastructure. I understand that Limerick City and County Council is considering the matter in conjunction with its delivery partners. I also understand the strategic importance of this development and will work proactively with Limerick and its delivery partners to support the work. It is envisaged that the housing activation office will manage a multi-annual housing infrastructure investment fund under the national development plan. The scope of this fund will be determined as part of the review of the national development plan, which is due to be completed in July. This will inform the programme of investment. While I cannot comment on any individual sites in advance of the opening of that fund for infrastructure proposals, there will be engagement with stakeholders, including local authorities, to identify priority areas for support.
Sentiment score: 0.24
Funding for the housing activation office will come under the national development plan, which is currently being agreed. Limerick City and County Council has received local infrastructure housing activation fund, LIHAF, funding for the delivery of the first two phases of a new distributor road at Mungret. LIHAF funding approval of €22.1 million was given, of which €6.6 million was funded by the Department and the balance by Limerick City and County Council. Both phases funded by LIHAF are now complete, with the second section of the road opening in April 2024. Up to the end of 2024, this road has allowed 203 homes to be delivered, including 99 cost-reduced units. Funding approval of more than €18 million is in place to support the delivery of 181 affordable purchase units by 2027 with the support of the affordable housing fund. In total, the proposed mixed tenure development will comprise 181 affordable purchase homes and two community dwellings for people with disabilities, which are being delivered by the Land Development Agency, together with 69 social houses for older persons and a crèche to be delivered by Clúid AHB. I welcome Limerick's ambition in this regard. Limerick City and County Council has informally advised the Department that a funding shortfall of €5 million has been identified. It is understood that this funding requirement relates to the infrastructural realm. We will work with Limerick City and County Council to help meet its ambition.
Sentiment score: 0.22
The Department has not received any formal submission on funding. We have been made aware that there is a funding issue and we are engaging with the local authority to see what is the best way forward to address it.
Sentiment score: 0.39
I thank Deputy O'Sullivan for raising this question about the encouragement of new technologies in the construction sector, including modular housing. I understand he has raised this issue on numerous occasions. The use of modern methods of construction, MMC, is a key policy measure to boost construction sector productivity and to support the scaling-up of delivery of new housing supply. MMC is a collective term which describes a number of innovative alternatives to traditional on-site construction methods. It does include 3D volumetric modules, which are commonly known as modular houses, but also includes a number of other systems, including 2D systems like timber frames, light-gauge steel or insulated concrete formwork, all of which have the potential to increase productivity in construction. We have already made a good deal of progress under Housing for All in terms of promoting the use of MMC in both public and private housing. We are supporting local authorities to adopt MMC in social and affordable housing, including through the publication of the 2023 roadmap for increased adoption of MMC in public housing and by providing real opportunities to deliver homes using MMC. For example, my Department has an accelerated delivery programme which will deliver more than 1,500 social homes through local authorities, all being built using modern methods of construction. In terms of modular projects, Wexford County Council is progressing a pilot social housing project for 22 modular homes at a site in New Ross, with funding support from my Department, and that will present an opportunity to examine the potential of this type of MMC through this and other modular projects. I am keen to continue the progress the Government has made to date in encouraging the use of MMC and it will form an important aspect of the next housing plan.
Sentiment score: 0.57
I fully agree with the Deputy that MMC is critical to housing delivery in this country. When modular units were first proposed for schools, for example, there was a little bit of pushback from school principals, who were concerned as many of them had grown up with very poor prefabs and perhaps they thought that was what was coming. I was chair of a school board of management at the time, and when the modular building arrived, we saw the high quality of the build. School principals then raced to get them because they could be got at such speed. A similar change of mindset is required for housing. It is the way forward. Our tradespeople are getting older and it is becoming more and more difficult to replace them, so if we want to build housing at scale, it must be done through modern methods of construction. One of the things the Government did today was to get agreement to end the four-stage process and reduce it to a single-stage process, but also to make it mandatory for local authorities to use a housing design manual from the Department of housing, which contains 60 designs. What that will also do is help those providing MMC across the country to know they can now scale up because there will be consistency of style specifications for the delivery of social housing throughout the country.
Sentiment score: 0.00
I agree. It is simply taking too long to get certification for the use of modular builds in this country. The Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, is engaging with his counterpart in the Department of enterprise. We are determined to get to a situation where we can get certification done at a much quicker pace. We need it done. We have an ageing workforce. It is getting more difficult to replace them. If we want to go from 30,000 houses a year to 60,000 houses a year, it has to be done using modern methods of construction. That is modular build. I was in Hong Kong in March. There, 45-storey apartment blocks are being built purely using modular. They can do it at an extraordinary pace. We need to do it. It is also about productivity. We have very low productivity in the building sector in Ireland. Again, that is because we are not using modern methods of construction compared to other countries. We are behind the curve on this. The Minister of State and I are determined that we will catch up very quickly.
Sentiment score: 0.03