Affordability very much is at the heart of the Government's housing policy, as embodied within the new housing plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025-2030. The Government is targeting the delivery of 300,000 new homes by 2030, including 72,000 social homes and 90,000 affordable supports. The plan reinforces and expands the range of existing measures being implemented by Government to tackle the issues of supply and affordability, thereby supporting the increased provision of new homes to purchase and rent. Further Government measures introduced to support renters include the increase in the tax credit for renters under budget 2025 to a maximum of €1,000 for each renter in a household. Budget 2026 extends the rent tax credit, which was due to expire at the end of 2025, for a further three years to the end of 2028. The programme for Government commits to extending it. Record levels of social and affordable housing delivery have been achieved in recent years, with preliminary 2025 figures indicating further record levels of delivery. I am providing substantial funding to local authorities, the Land Development Agency and to approved housing bodies to support increased delivery. The national development plan has committed record levels of funding for new social and affordable housing, totalling almost €20 billion. Since the launch of cost rental in 2021, around €2.25 billion in Exchequer funding has been approved for cost rental projects. Beyond my Department, very significant loan funding is also being provided from the State's Housing Finance Agency. The lowering of VAT on new apartments to 9% under budget 2026 will also assist in the delivery of new homes into the cost-rental sector at lower cost. The Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act of 2026 came into effect on 1 March, introducing a new national rent control for all tenancies which limits rent increases to inflation as measured by the consumer price index up to a maximum of 2%. For new-build apartments and student-specific accommodation, however, rent increases are capped at the level of inflation CPI only. These changes were introduced to promote greater investment in the rental market, to increase supply of rental properties.
Sentiment score: 0.29
We do have a lot to say to people. We have already delivered a record number of homes last year. Since Housing for All came in, we delivered 36,000 homes last year. We have provided tax breaks for renters as well. We know the only way we can address the homeless crisis, the rent crisis and the housing crisis is through increasing the supply. We cannot calcify the current situation forever. I know it is popular for Deputies opposite to say they want an eviction ban and to freeze rents. They are just going to exacerbate the situation as the population increases as a result of more people coming into this country, which is fantastic. The diversity is wonderful for our country but we have to drive the supply. The State cannot provide all homes to deliver that.
Sentiment score: -0.02
Short-term protectionism is only exacerbating this situation. I want to give people hope. We delivered over 36,000 new homes last year. That is the highest number of homes since Housing for All came in. We delivered an awful lot more homes 20 years ago. In my view, the kind of protectionism we brought in has undermined the supply of those homes. We need to get back to delivering at least 50,000 homes a year. Going back 20 years, at one stage it was 90,000. I think those numbers were questionable, which is why we now rely on CSO data. There was still significantly more than we are delivering now. We need to ensure we have that framework and deliver the supply of homes people need right across the country. We are in a housing crisis. I am the first to admit it. The only way to get out of it is through supply, not through more and more protectionism.
Sentiment score: -0.04
Within the programme for Government 2025, Securing Ireland's Future, a commitment was specifically made to continue to accelerate social housing regeneration schemes in Dublin. This commitment is reiterated in the new housing plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities. Where local authorities propose the complete redevelopment of flat complexes such as O'Devaney Gardens and St. Teresa's Gardens, my Department is making a number of funding channels available to local authorities and approved housing bodies for such regeneration, including the social housing investment programme, the affordable housing fund, the capital advance leasing facility and cost-rental equity loans. For flat complexes proposed for refurbishment and remedial works, my Department is making funding available through our estate regeneration programme. Dublin City Council has completed a number of regeneration projects, including 72 units at Dominick Street east and 100 units as part of Dolphin House regeneration. The council has contractors on site for a number of other regeneration projects, such as Constitution Hill and Dorset Street and mixed-tenure redevelopments including the Donore project at St. Teresa's Gardens, An Droichead Órga at St. Michael's Estate and the Montpelier development at O'Devaney Gardens. These three mixed-tenure regeneration projects will deliver over 2,000 homes once all phases are completed. I have provided funding approval for a number of regeneration projects where the council is working on the design, planning and tendering, including Dolphin House phase 1b, School Street, Constitution Hill and Glovers Court. My Department is working with the council on a remedial works programme for four existing blocks in Pearse House. A funding proposal is with my officials for review, with a decision to be made in the coming weeks. The Department is also working with Dublin City Council on a proposal for remedial works on three blocks in Oliver Bond House and for the future regeneration of the remaining blocks. The Department remains committed to the regeneration of flat complexes in Dublin city and will continue to support well-conceived regeneration projects put forward by the city council.
Sentiment score: 0.18
I thank Deputy Ó Broin and I am surprised at his comments. The national regeneration and refurbishment programme is the largest regeneration programme in terms of funds in the history of the State. The remediation of local authority social housing estates and flat complexes in the country's most disadvantaged communities is one of my key priorities. This includes those defined by the most extreme social exclusion, unemployment and other issues in these local communities. That said, given the critical shortage of housing across the State, unnecessary or unjustified reductions in density are not supported where such reductions result in a significant loss of homes. We cannot stand over or justify this. The local authorities know the Department's position. We are moving at speed but we need the local authorities to put forward plans that meet the Department's requirements for what we will fund, which is regeneration but not losing homes. We cannot afford to lose homes in the current situation of a housing crisis.
Sentiment score: -0.14
I very much do understand the scale of the problem. The funding is available to address every one of those issues and they need to be addressed because it is totally unacceptable that people are living in these types of conditions, but it has been made about-----
Sentiment score: -0.34
It has been made about density instead of being about regeneration. We fully support and will fund the regeneration. It needs to happen. It could have happened by now. We want it to happen at speed-----
Sentiment score: 0.11
Because the local authority made it about density instead of regeneration.
Sentiment score: 0.08
This needs to happen and it needs to happen quickly.
Sentiment score: 0.00
It needs to happen in terms of ensuring people have the quality homes, updated homes and upgraded homes they deserve to live in, instead of it being made about density, which Deputy Ó Broin has made it about and so has the local authority in the past.
Sentiment score: 0.34
I thank the Deputy for her question in relation to this matter. Supporting individuals and families who are experiencing or are at risk of experiencing homelessness, including victims and survivors of domestic abuse, is very much a priority for me, my Department and the Government. The response to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence is a cross-departmental multi-agency issue, with the Department of justice co-ordinating overall policy. Responsibility for the development and provision of services to support victims rests with my colleague the Minister for justice, working in conjunction with Cuan, the statutory domestic, sexual and gender-based violence agency, which is under the remit of the Department of justice. It is currently not possible for a household that was previously on one social housing waiting list to carry over the time spent on that list when applying to another local authority. However, in line with a commitment in the housing plan, a protocol to allow households fleeing domestic, sexual and gender-based violence to transfer time spent on a social housing waiting list to another local authority will be established and implemented this year. My Department has already engaged with local authorities and the County and City Management Association to develop this protocol. The structures to progress this commitment are in place. This includes a dedicated group of local authority directors of housing, which is working with my Department to ensure the protocol is workable, meets the needs of those who can benefit from it and is finalised as soon as possible. Notwithstanding this commitment, local authorities will prioritise allocations to those households they consider to be most in need at any moment in time. Local authorities may also provide for exceptional or emergency cases, allowing immediate housing for qualified households outside of normal waiting list priorities should circumstances require. Households may also move and relocate between housing authority areas under the housing assistance payment, HAP, scheme where the household income is within the relevant income limits. Furthermore, in 2017, my Department issued policy and procedural guidance to local authorities on the role they can play in assisting victims and survivors of domestic violence. The issuing of this 2017 policy guidance was a significant action under the section national strategy on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, which was for the period 2016 to 2021. It has since played an important role in addressing the housing needs of victims.
Sentiment score: 0.07
I assure the Deputy that there is no slippage on this. This will be established and implemented this year. Once the protocols are finalised, I will be issuing that direction to the local authorities to ensure that people can travel from one local authority to another when fleeing domestic violence without losing time spent on the first authority's list. In fairness, I have generally found my own local authority quite reasonable and understanding in this regard. However, there has been an inconsistency across local authorities. We want to ensure we are not dependent on the views of an individual director of services or head of housing. We want consistency right across every local authority so that, when people are fleeing domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, there will be a level of compassion and understanding. As I have said, people will not have to depend on compassion and understanding; rather, they will have this as a right.
Sentiment score: 0.11
I recognise that the Deputy has raised this on many occasions. She has been very consistent on it. This protocol is coming. It would be welcome if, in anticipation of the protocol, local authorities accepted what they know is now going to come.
Sentiment score: 0.17
I thank Deputy Mac Lochlainn for raising this important issue with regard to the SCSI and the draft follow-up on construction costs under the defective concrete block grant scheme. My Department keeps costs relating to the defective concrete blocks scheme under continuous review. As the Deputy is aware, following updated costs reports from the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland and advice from an expert group established to consider the matter, a further increase from the original grant rate set down in the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Act 2022 was provided for on 23 October 2024. The scheme cap has risen by 10% to €462,000. Increases in the scheme grant rates of between 7.4% and 8.7%, as set out in the 2023 regulations, were also approved on 7 November 2024. It was agreed the uplift in the rates would be applied retrospectively but primary legislation was required to amend the original Act to allow for this. The Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks (Amendment) Bill was initiated in Dáil Éireann on 2 October 2025, passed by both Houses of the Oireachtas and signed into law. The main provisions of the 2025 Act provide that increases in the grant scheme cap and rates from October and November 2024 can retrospectively benefit homeowners who incurred qualifying costs under the grant scheme since 29 March 2024. I have signed the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks (Amendment) Act 2025 commencement order to give effect to these provisions, which came into operation on 25 February 2026, with related regulations also adopted on that date. As for provisions of section 51 of the 2022 Act, a full review of the Act will commence later this year following its first three years in operation. It will offer an opportunity to review various issues arising in terms of the remediation of defective concrete blocks. I will consider whether the area of rates should form part of that review or a separate review.
Sentiment score: -0.03
We continuously keep the scheme under review through consistent and regular stakeholder engagement. An implementation steering group for the defective concrete blocks grant scheme has been in place since 2023 and comprises officials from relevant local authorities, my Department, the Housing Agency and homeowner liaison officers. This regular stakeholder engagement is augmented by regular meetings. We have done a review of the costings, implemented it and passed the legislation. I am looking at whether such a review will form part of the wider review this year or will be done as a separate review, but it will be done this year.
Sentiment score: 0.12
I am very conscious of the distressing situation people in Donegal and other counties are going through. I have been to Donegal and spent considerable time listening to people and getting a better understanding of the distressing situation they are in. The wider review has to start on or before July 2026. It may start sooner if the review comes in in relation to IS 465/2018 being changed because that in itself triggers a review. There is another review in relation to the cost. It will be a question of the most effective way of getting the review of rates done.
Sentiment score: 0.03
I thank the Deputy for the question, which relates to Elm Park in Buncrana and advancement of the plans to relocate families. The Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Act 2022 commenced on 22 June 2023. It underpins the current grant scheme and the related regulations that were adopted on 29 June 2023. I visited Donegal last year and met with many of the affected residents. I understand the flooding issue pertaining to Elm Park, where nine homeowners are particularly affected. Some of the homeowners impacted are eligible to avail of the defective concrete blocks scheme funded by my Department but they are understandably worried about availing of the scheme and remediating their homes without the flood risk being addressed. The OPW has a plan to undertake flood relief works. The residents are understandably concerned about the length of time before the flood works would be completed and have asked that consideration be given to relocation options. I appreciate the genuine concerns of residents based on their experience of recent years; indeed, I have seen the videos myself. Therefore, I am disposed towards finding solutions to the flooding issue based on the needs of those affected and to finding a workable solution. In the past, the OPW has used relocation schemes in some small and specific circumstances and I have asked officials in my Department to find a method of relocating the families that come under the scheme.
Sentiment score: 0.03
I thank the Deputy and the other Deputies in Donegal for their work in this area. I have met with the families and seen the videos. We know flood relief schemes take a considerable time. That relocation proposal needs to be advanced. I will continue to work with the residents and with the Deputies from Donegal on coming up with a scheme as quickly as possible. The current legislation did not necessarily envisage relocations but we have brought forward new regulations that will allow a relocation model in very limited circumstances.
Sentiment score: 0.16