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52. Deputy Roderic O'Gorman asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht if consideration will be given to granting housing functions to Údarás na Gaeltachta; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22990/26]

294. Deputy Niamh Smyth asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to review correspondence (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23127/26]

295. Deputy Louis O'Hara asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage when an inspection of completed works will be carried out for a grant application (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23140/26]

296. Deputy Paul Lawless asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of individuals and families currently in emergency accommodation in County Clare, by municipal district; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23174/26]

298. Deputy Paul Lawless asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of individuals and families currently accommodated in hotels and B and Bs as emergency accommodation in County Clare; the locations of such accommodation; and the cost to the State of providing this accommodation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23176/26]

300. Deputy Paul Lawless asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of properties purchased by Clare County Council under tenant-in-situ or other acquisition schemes in west Clare, including Kilkee, in the past two years; and whether additional funding will be provided to increase such acquisitions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23179/26]

303. Deputy Tom Brabazon asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage when a response to representations will be issued (details supplied). [23187/26]

305. Deputy Rory Hearne asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he plans to expand the data provided in the monthly homelessness reports to include breakdowns of the number of children living in emergency accommodation, by age categories; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23211/26]

306. Deputy Roderic O'Gorman asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the details of funding drawn down by each local authority over the past four years for the ready to build (serviced sites for new homes) scheme under the Croí Cónaithe towns fund, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23215/26]

307. Deputy Roderic O'Gorman asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the amount funding allocated each year since 2023 to the serviced ready to build (serviced sites for new homes) scheme under the croí cónaithe towns fund, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23216/26]

308. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the average length of time it took SHIP construction projects to complete the four-stage approval process for those projects that were delivered in 2025; and the breakdown of the average length of time it took to pass through stage 1 approval, planning, design approval, cost appraisal, procurement and constructi…

313. Deputy Barry Heneghan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide an update on any proposed legislation or regulatory changes to allow for the use of cabins or modular units in back gardens for residential purposes; the expected timeline for bringing forward such measures; the conditions under which such units may be permitted, including planning, occupancy and se…

314. Deputy Malcolm Byrne asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage Ireland's progress under the Nature Restoration Law. [23391/26]

316. Deputy Aidan Farrelly asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will provide a schedule of the legal costs incurred by An Coimiúsín Pleanála (ACP) in 2024, 2025 and to-date in 2026; the individuals amount paid out to solicitors and barristers representing ACP; and amounts paid to solicitors and barristers representing third parties in 2024, 2025 and to-date in 2026, …

317. Deputy Aidan Farrelly asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the amount paid out by An Coimiúsín Pleanála (ACP) in legal costs to named solicitors and barristers concerning High Court judicial review cases ACP conceded in 2024, 2025 and to-date in 2026; and the name of the plaintiffs in each case and date ACP conceded the cases, in tabular form. [23400/26]

318. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage for a breakdown of the total amount of local authority home loan applications, by local authority; and the number of successful applications, in tabular form. [23426/26]

319. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage for a breakdown of the total amounts of units retrofitted, by local authority area, for each of the past five years. [23427/26]

321. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage for an update on the progress of the regeneration of Noonan Road, Cork, and surrounding streets. [23429/26]

323. Deputy Erin McGreehan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the remedies or supports available in the case of a person who experiences frequent interruptions to their mains water supply due to topography and low pressure, as verified by Uisce Éireann, but who is simultaneously ineligible for a local authority grant for a new well, on the basis that the property is conn…

325. Deputy Robert O'Donoghue asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the eligibility population threshold for towns applying under the newly announced Towns and Cities Regeneration Investment Fund; to confirm whether the threshold is 10,000, 9,000, or another figure; the basis for the threshold applied; whether it is based on Census 2022 settlement populations; and whether t…

365. Deputy Mark Wall asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration if he will address an issue with an IRP which is impacting a person’s ability to avail of housing (details supplied). [23189/26]

520. Deputy Michael Cahill asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht the housing incentives being put in place to ensure that the Irish language is protected and flourishes in County Kerry going forward; the steps being taken to ensure Irish speakers continue to live, work, retire, return or relocate to the Kerry Gaeltacht, , Corca Dhuibhne, Dingle Peninsula and Uíbh…

148. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the steps he is taking to ensure that local authorities are resourced efficiently to process Section 5 planning applications as part of the vacant property refurbishment grant to ensure that the statutory four weeks for a decision on said application is made; if he is aware of delays in a local authority where…

149. Deputy Rory Hearne asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage further to Parliamentary Question No.1025 of 18 March 2026, if he intends to introduce a measure to count the number of build-to-rent apartments that are being built; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22655/26]

151. Deputy Mattie McGrath asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage whether S.I. No. 166/2007 - Local Government (Business Improvement Districts Ratepayer Plebiscite) Regulations 2007 remains in force and applicable within the areas that were previously under the jurisdiction of those bodies; and if the Regulations continue to apply, if he will outline the body of elected memb…

I agree with the Deputy. I mentioned in my opening remarks earlier on during Leaders' Questions that all us share responsibility in this House but also outside the House, and that includes corporate bodies and our education system. Our teachers and our other educators are doing a lot of work in this regard from a very young age, particularly in relation to boys' and young men's attitudes towards s…

Is the Government concerned about a developer's ability, under current insolvency and receivership law, to convert themselves into a secured creditor during the collapse of their own residential project? This is the shocking scenario that homeowners have faced in my constituency in Ringfort, Rathmolyon, County Meath. The developer now ranks ahead of Revenue and the contracted home buyers, which ma…

I appreciate the opportunity to speak on the Supplementary Estimates before the House today for the Department of Taoiseach and the Office of the Chief State Solicitor. I understand that these proposals are not about allocating new funds for fresh initiatives or discretionary spending. Instead, they represent essential expenditures that arise from legal obligations. These obligations come from dec…

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. The cost of private health insurance puts a huge burden on people. In particular, it puts a huge burden on pensioners, who feel they have no choice. People feel compelled to take up private health insurance because of the delays and inefficiencies in our public system. Some progress has been made in some areas. Some of the screening projects …

I am delighted to speak on this Bill. Indeed, I was in the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach's chair when the Minister of State was speaking. I always listen to the Minister of State's speeches and learn from them and take them for she is succinct and to the point and not afraid to call a spade a spade. There are many aspects to this Bill but the thrust of it, I suppose, is that we are enabling and puttin…

I welcome the Victims of Sexual Violence Civil Protection Orders Bill 2025, which as others have said, aims to ensure a person subjected to sexual violence can be granted a civil protection order where an offence has been found to have been committed under criminal or common law. It is one step, as Deputy Carthy said, but it is an important step in adding to the legal protections available. It is …

There were many omissions in the Minister's ill-fated housing plan launched only a matter of weeks ago but one that was particularly astonishing is the removal of targets, either across the life cycle of the plan or, indeed, on an annual basis, for cost-rental and affordable purchase homes delivered by local authorities, approved housing bodies, AHBs, and the Land Development Agency, LDA. Can the …

If that is the case, why would the Minister not say he has a target for new-build social homes? Again, this is a scheme that he funds and a scheme that local authorities and approved housing bodies deliver, some in conjunction with the Land Development Agency. It makes no sense to say that we do not need targets for cost rental and affordable purchase but we do for social housing. Again, it is a v…

The House should note for the second time tonight that the Minister has studiously avoided the question. What do we know about tenancies? The Residential Tenancies Board tells us that the average length of a tenancy is three and a half years long. In the past 12 months, 70,000 fresh first-time tenancies were created. That is 28% of the total number of private rental tenancies. If those trends cont…

5. Deputy Conor Sheehan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the timeframe for the implementation of the recommendations of the approved housing bodies strategic forum report; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [65673/25]

Will the Minister outline a timeline for the implementation of the recommendations of the AHB strategic forum report? I ask him this in particular in relation to the gearing issue that is there and in relation to moving the AHB sector towards a sustainable delivery model. There is a real lack of clarity in the Minister's new housing plan on exactly how the Government will deliver its targets. How …

The Minister was in before the committee, but, more specifically, as the report has now been published, the Minister has established a special working sectoral group in this area. There were eight interlinked policy developments. The Deputy has referred to some of them. We want to get the AHBs to go more towards direct delivery to examine the reformed income model for the AHB social housing revolv…

I thank the Minister of State for that response. We really need to see action on this from the Government. The gearing and debt levels within some larger AHBs need to be addressed because they are basically putting our capacity to deliver housing at risk. Specifically, in relation to the recommendation of moving the AHB sector away from turnkey and towards direct delivery, there is a distinct lac…

More specifically on the issue the Deputy has raised about turnkey developments, there is a process being initiated at the moment towards a call for proposals. Through the Department but particularly the local authorities, the State will define the location, the typology and tenure of housing needed as well as specifications and value parameters for any of the scheme proposals. The AHB proposals a…

6. Deputy Willie O'Dea asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the key measures to increase social housing availability under Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025-2030; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [65487/25]

Will the Minister for housing to outline the key measures to increase social housing availability under the delivering homes, building communities plan?

Meeting our social housing targets is absolutely crucial. Meeting them through new builds is best practice and that is where we want to expand as quickly as possible. However, we need local authorities to lead on their own-build programmes as well because that builds resilience into the system no matter what the economic situation may be to ensure that there is not a reliance of delivery through P…

I welcome the strong recognition for modern methods of construction in the new housing plan. That is critically important. The construction sector is very much up for embracing MMC and the additional measures in the plan to incentivise the construction industry to take up those measures are critically important. The Cathaoirleach Gníomhach will know a development in his constituency, Longview in B…

I accept the question I am asking the Minister is tangential to the one on the questions paper. I urge him to go off script for the next couple of minutes to address it. We have a situation where houses that were built are vacant. At the heart of this particular problem is that there are two separate companies with the same owners and directors. One company has bought the debt of another company, …

13. Deputy Mark Ward asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the funding allocated to local authorities to bring vacant properties back into public use for social housing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [65437/25]

I thank both Deputies for their input in relation to the matter. In relation to my time in the Department of housing, there has been significant engagement with the Department of the environment in terms of developing the wider issues around the guidelines and in relation to updating them through the national planning statements. These are very technical in nature. They are very complex. There is …

There was a protest outside today by homeowners affected by defective concrete blocks from Mayo and Donegal, but also from Fingal. The homeowners in Fingal met the Minister's predecessor in 2022 and applied to the Housing Agency in 2023. The Housing Agency's report has been on the Minister's desk since June or July of this year. Can he tell us when he is going to make a decision because these hom…

I can feel the Deputy's frustration with this particular issue. As I said, for the first time ever we have put money into Uisce Éireann, which is ring-fenced money, for it to develop new infrastructure. Since its inception, Uisce Éireann has spent a lot of its time trying to firefight existing infrastructure which was not functioning properly. In fairness, it did not get the proper money to do the…

I am clear in my support for increased public transport for Kildare South, but we know this extra capacity will take years. Commuters on the M7 and N7 cannot wait that long. Since I first raised this, I have been inundated with messages from commuters across Leinster and north Munster. Thousands of people are spending their lives stuck in daily traffic for up to three hours as they try to get to w…

We are doing things. We have established Cuan, the national agency. We have a zero-tolerance strategy. We are seeing funding for additional safe spaces. The Minister for justice is taking this matter extraordinarily seriously. He has secured Government approval to progress the criminal law (sexual violence, domestic violence and international instruments) Bill 2025, which includes measures to allo…