I thank the Deputy for his question. We recognise the need to address the short-term letting sector in areas of housing need, especially in areas of high demand such as Dublin city, and where properties are not compliant with planning requirements. The Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment is committed to introducing a short-term letting and tourism Bill that will provide the statutory basis for the introduction of regulatory controls for short-term lets, including the establishment of a register to be managed by Fáilte Ireland, and for the implementation of the harmonised EU short-term rental regulation, which was adopted on 14 April 2024 and will be applicable from 20 May 2026. The short-term letting and tourism Bill will include shared data requirements such as specific addresses and activity profiles for each short-term let unit. This will enable authorities to implement and enforce a balance between the short- and long-term accommodation sectors. Member states will be required to introduce penalties for online short-term rental platforms that do not comply with their obligations under the short-term rental regulation. This matter will be addressed under the short-term letting and tourism Bill. It is important that there is a clear and consistent policy approach at national and local authority levels to determining planning applications for short-term lets. Any amendment to planning legislation will be informed by policy and consider multiple factors, including long-term housing need in the local authority area, the location of the proposed short-term let and the need to balance housing need with the potential impact on tourism and economic development.
Sentiment score: 0.20
I thank Deputy Ó Broin again for raising this important question. We know that short-term lets are a problem, not just in Ireland but right across the world, particularly where properties are taken over and used. It is an increasing problem in Ireland, putting significant pressure on areas of high demand, such as Dublin city. I am working with the Minister, Deputy Peter Burke. Ireland has introduced regulations, but enforcement has proven to be very difficult. To set out some of the challenges, planning breaches where someone has put up a physical building are easy to identify and prosecute. When it relates more to a service, though, it can be quite difficult to detect it and gather the necessary evidence to bring a prosecution. I am determined to tackle this issue. It is putting huge pressure on our rental sector and homelessness. I agree that it is unacceptable for companies to profit from breaches of the Planning and Development Act or any law.
Sentiment score: -0.07
It is unacceptable that there are commercial entities profiteering from situations where people are in breach of the law. We want an approach where we can enforce the law in such a way as to ensure these properties are brought back into use and are available for long-term renting in high pressure zone areas, while ensuring the impact on more rural areas that rely on short-term lets for economic and tourism purposes is minimised. I intend to bring a fresh pair of eyes to that enforcement. The Deputy's suggestions will be part of those considerations.
Sentiment score: 0.05
The programme for Government commits to delivering more than 300,000 houses between 2025 and the end of 2030, an average of over 50,000 per annum. Delivery over the period will need to rise incrementally to 60,000 homes per year by 2030. This target of reaching an annual average of over 50,000 homes is both ambitious and credible. It is drawn from the work done by the ESRI in 2024 on population growth and structural household demand. We clearly need to significantly scale-up capacity across the construction industry in the coming years and reaching 60,000 new homes by 2030 will be an enormous challenge. This can be facilitated by targeted support to grow the construction industry’s capacity year-on-year, establishing a platform from which housing supply can be ramped up to the higher levels needed. It is intended to revisit these targets in 2027 if, reflecting on demand and growing construction capacity, we need different targets for 2028 and subsequent years. There is ongoing engagement between my Department and the Departments of Finance and Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform regarding all financing arrangements related to housing. These will continue both in the context of review of the national development plan, the multi-annual funding requirements for the new housing plan committed to in the programme for Government and as part of normal annual Estimates discussions. My Department does not forecast new housing completions in any given year, however.
Sentiment score: 0.27
The Department never makes projections of what housing delivery will be. We have heard in the past number of weeks everything from 30,000 to 40,000 through different sectors in terms of various projections for completions. The outcome will be what will be. My intention will be to maximise the delivery of housing over the next 12 months and, indeed, over the next number of years. As Minister for housing, I am re-examining every aspect of how we deliver on those targets and what else we can do to ensure that they can be delivered. There are clear challenges in the system to the delivery of housing and we need to look at this from a fresh perspective in terms of how we can reach those targets. I am in regular contact with the Department of public expenditure and reform, but I would point out that there is record funding for capital delivery of housing for this year.
Sentiment score: 0.17
I agree, in that apartment delivery has collapsed. That is very clear. We need to have radical thinking in terms of how we get that supply of apartments moving again. That is where the significant shortfall in reaching our targets has happened, particularly in Dublin city but also in our other cities, including Limerick. Apartments need to be delivered. I intend to take significant action to get those moving. I am waiting for the Housing Agency to publish its report in the next couple of weeks. We will examine its proposals in certain areas and look at what we need to do to ensure we get apartments delivery moving again. We need to take radical action on it.
Sentiment score: 0.17
The Government is fully committed to working with all stakeholders to deliver social, affordable and cost rental homes at scale, with a record level of investment being provided for the delivery of housing in 2025 - capital funding of €6.5 billion supplemented by current funding of €1.65 billion. The number of new-build social homes in the pipeline for delivery in the three-year period 2025 to 2027 is circa 36,000 homes, the highest ever for a three-year period. The strongest national delivery of social housing since 1975 was recorded in 2022 with 10,254 social homes delivered. This was exceeded in 2023 with 11,938 homes. Affordability and the chance to own a home is at the heart of the Government’s housing policy. As detailed under Housing for All, the Government plans to deliver 54,000 affordable homes by 2030, with 36,000 affordable purchase and 18,000 cost rental homes. A comprehensive implementation strategy is in place to support the various affordable housing schemes now being delivered by a range of delivery partners. Since September 2024, my Department has approved 273 social and affordable housing projects and continues to approve projects. As with all Exchequer-funded projects, my Department, as approving authority, assesses each project application for suitability, value for money and compliance with the various requirements of the applicable funding scheme. There will always be projects on hand with my Department which are either under assessment or the subject of further engagement with local authorities or approved housing bodies. This is perfectly normal in the context of the circa 2,500 social and affordable housing projects which have been or are being handled by my Department currently and are scheduled for delivery in the period 2025 to 2027.
Sentiment score: 0.36
I thank the Deputy for his question. We received an additional €450 million a couple of weeks ago to release up to 3,000 new properties to be delivered. We are working our way through those approvals as quickly as possible. As the Deputy will know, they need to be assessed before final approval. The majority of those have now been done. It is something that is in flux at any moment in time, but I expect the last of those to be approved in the next couple of weeks in terms of funding. Regarding other applications on hand, we have an open call, applications come in and we process them. However, the fact that an application comes in does not mean it is necessarily going to be funded.
Sentiment score: 0.24
I understand the frustration among local authorities and approved housing bodies but there was a general election, which caused a certain delay in projects. Those projects are being worked through now as quickly as possible, though. A final check always has to be done on every project before its approval is notified to the local authority. I cannot guarantee that every single house will be approved within that, if an issue arises on the final check. What I see is that, subject to everything being in accordance with the requirements through those checks, any of them that are still outstanding would be approved in the coming weeks.
Sentiment score: 0.29
The planning permission data released by the CSO last week is concerning. It can be seen within the data that the overall dip is driven mainly by a fall in the permissions for apartments. This illustrates the enormous challenge of meeting our revised housing targets, the critical role of apartment delivery in this regard, and the importance of securing private capital investment to fund this delivery at the levels needed over the next decade and beyond. Government is committed to meeting this challenge and is taking a twin-track approach with a mix of pragmatic short-term and strategic long-term actions to help build on the recent significant uplift in delivery and sustain this into the future. Government is already examining actions to scale-up delivery in the immediate term, pending completion of a new all-of-government national housing plan committed to in the programme for Government. To this end, we are actioning priority commitments in the programme for Government with the potential to make an immediate impact, such as establishing a new strategic housing activation office. While supporting longer term delivery, such measures will also help maximise the impact of measures already introduced to strengthen the housing supply pipeline, including the development levy waiver and water connection rebate, which seek, inter alia, to activate the large number of planning permissions already in the system and address viability issues in relation to apartment delivery. Further proposals for measures to help scale up delivery to 300,000 new homes by the end of 2030 will be considered in the context of the new plan.
Sentiment score: 0.34
This year the Government has already committed €6.5 billion towards delivering housing in this country. We need probably a minimum of €20 billion spent on housing to deliver the necessary housing. The rest of that money has to come from the private sector. Financial firms, whether national or international, are a key part of that because you need that private funding to deliver those properties. While the Deputy is quick to criticise, his own manifesto commits to private funding to deliver housing in this country and yet he is not setting out what he would do in terms of where he would get that funding from. We will look at this radically again. I accept international firms need to make a profit. That is stating the obvious. We need to look at this to see how we can get those investors back into this country - they are in other countries - to deliver through the private sector the housing that we need in this country.
Sentiment score: 0.06
It is private finance that will also want a profit. No matter what way you do it, private finance will always seek a profit - even those Irish savers if you tapped into them. I am not against that. We are going to examine that carefully to see if that can be done, but they will still want a profit for their funding. They are not going to put their money away if they do not think they are going to make a profit. No matter what way you do this, private finance requires a profit to instigate that type of investment. We will look at all the possible levers to do that.
Sentiment score: 0.29
I thank the Deputy for his question. Under Housing for All, the Government set out plans to deliver 54,000 affordable homes, including 36,000 affordable purchase and 18,000 cost-rental homes, by 2030. The target for 2024 across all of the various delivery streams was 6,400. A comprehensive implementation strategy is in place to support the various affordable housing schemes now being delivered by a range of delivery partners. My Department publishes programme-level statistics on affordable and social housing delivery activity by local authorities and delivery partners in each local authority area. Data up to quarter 3 2024 is already published on the statistics page of my Department's website. Data for quarter 4 2024 is currently being verified, and I expect my Department will be in a position to report shortly. In the first nine months of 2024, a total of 4,480 affordable housing options were delivered across both affordable purchase and cost-rental delivery streams via local authorities, the Land Development Agency, approved housing bodies and through the first home scheme. While the quarter 4 figures are being verified, I anticipate that 2024 will be the best year to date for delivery of affordable homes by our delivery partners and I note the hard work going into that delivery right across the sector. Affordable housing schemes are now operating at scale and this momentum will continue as the pipeline is developed by local authorities, approved housing bodies and the Land Development Agency.
Sentiment score: 0.24
As I say, I am awaiting the quarter 4 figures to be verified but I anticipate 2024 will be the best year to date for the delivery of affordable homes by our delivery partners. We will continue to work with all of our partners to increase the delivery of affordable homes in any shape or manner that they can be delivered in.
Sentiment score: 0.55
Rents for cost-rental homes are set to cover the cost of delivery, financing and managing and maintaining the homes modelled over at least 40 years. Cost rents paid will vary between households and schemes and is dependent on the size of the home and the location but cost rental is a more affordable option compared with the pressures of the private market and will always be made available at least 25% below comparable market rents. Rents for cost-rental homes are already below full cost levels thanks to the effect of subsidy elements of funding those streams.
Sentiment score: -0.00