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244. Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the measures he is taking to increase social housing delivery in County Meath; the number delivered in each of the past three years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16267/26]

247. Deputy Maurice Quinlivan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will consider increasing the income threshold for applicants for social housing, accounting for the rise in monthly rents; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17571/26]

248. Deputy Barry Ward asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage his views on the provision of allocated housing for those that work in frontline public sector jobs including teachers, nurses and members of An Garda Síochána; if this is under review within his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16471/26]

249. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the engagement he has had with the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Energy on the impact of grid constraint on the delivery of housing targets; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17080/26]

252. Deputy Willie O'Dea asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage his plans to review the qualifying criteria for social housing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17480/26]

256. Deputy Sean Fleming asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage his targets for affordable housing in 2026; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17488/26]

257. Deputy Cormac Devlin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if an increase to housing assistance payment rent limits is being considered; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17484/26]

397. Deputy Rory Hearne asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the options for individuals fleeing domestic violence and who are forced to leave a joint local authority tenancy for their own safety; the alternatives available to them to moving to a new local authority and rejoining the bottom of the housing list; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18045/26]

398. Deputy Rory Hearne asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he has considered fast tracking a social housing passport style transfer option between local authorities for individuals fleeing domestic violence; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18046/26]

399. Deputy Rory Hearne asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide an update on his Department’s review of the 2017 Policy and Procedural Guidance for Housing Authorities in relation to assisting victims of domestic violence with emergency and long-term accommodation needs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18047/26]

401. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the national policy or policies which allow local authorities to deliver social, affordable and private housing tenures; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18113/26]

402. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will examine the case for providing capital assistance scheme funding, or an alternative capital mechanism, to support the redevelopment of a disability housing property (details supplied); and whether flexibility can be applied in CAS policy for older properties whose original liens have long expired. [18…

175. Deputy Paul McAuliffe asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide an update on the progress of the Ravenhouse development in Finglas, Dublin 11, as developed by Dublin City Council in conjunction with an approved housing body; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17464/26]

176. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the process put in place to arrange for property registered to Cork County Council to be transferred to Cork City Council after the extension of the city boundary; the reason three houses in an area (details supplied) which are vacant for over ten years remain registered to Cork County Council but are now in Cork …

178. Deputy Conor D. McGuinness asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the allocation per local authority for the Housing Adaptation Grant for People with a Disability for each year from 2015-2025 and for 2026, in tabular form. [17709/26]

179. Deputy Conor D. McGuinness asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the allocation per local authority for the Disability Adaptation to Housing Stock for each year from 2015-2025 and for 2026, in tabular form. [17710/26]

577. Deputy John Paul O'Shea asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage for an update on an affordable housing scheme in Cork (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16212/26]

584. Deputy Mattie McGrath asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if local authorities under the housing adaptation grant approve and fund modular bathroom pods where they are deemed the most appropriate method to meet the applicant’s needs, and in a timely manner, given they already pay for stairlifts which are modular and temporary; and if he will make a statement on the m…

585. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the process that was put in place to arrange for property registered to Cork County Council to be transferred to Cork City Council after the extension of the city boundary; the reason three houses in an area (details supplied) which have been vacant for over ten years remain registered to Cork County Council but a…

586. Deputy Danny Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of houses occupied by bats in County Kerry that are designated as bat roosts; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16454/26]

588. Deputy Danny Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage whether local authorities that own land for house building are liable for the residential zoned land tax; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16457/26]

609. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage where a person who purchased a local authority affordable home but has since identified structural issues or quality issues with said house should report these issues; the remedies that are available to them; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16924/26]

610. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if there is an audit process in place between his Department and the local authorities setting out the time from which a property is completed and ready to occupy to the time that the property is then made available to those who are on the housing waiting list; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16970…

612. Deputy Barry Heneghan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage whether he is considering the introduction of emergency legislation to reform or overhaul the current planning system in light of the urgent need to accelerate the delivery of critical national infrastructure, including healthcare, housing and transport projects; the specific measures under consideration to ad…

617. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide a list of all tier 3 and tier 2 AHBs, stating each AHB’s total owned social and cost rental housing stock, in tabular form. [17147/26]

The vast majority of the Act will be commenced by the end of this year. We have already started to commence it with the commencement of the urban development zone sections and the establishment of An Coimisiún Pleanála. The State is delivering approximately 50% of all housing solutions, including from the private sector Part V. Our ambition is to continue delivering as much social and affordable h…

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 …

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 …

I congratulate my colleague Deputy Farrell for bringing this Bill forward. It is significant legislation. It very much aligns with the work that the Deputy has done since she entered this Chamber in 2020. She is very much focused on the question of public procurement and driving economic and social change through the development of responsible public procurement systems. It is quite extraordinary …

This morning the DNG report tells us that in Dublin the average cost of a second hand home is €600,000. I have a very simple question for the Minister of State. Who is buying these houses? Who is earning the money to pay 600 grand for a second-hand house in Dublin? People want to live near their family, which is not an outrageous thing to want. They want to live in the city they were born in. They…

The Minister spoke about different reports and bodies being set up and whatever. The bottom line is that if people do their job and are given the utilities, instruments and simplifications, everyone could do their jobs without putting layers upon layers. All we are doing, if we get a housing tsar or whatever, is getting another person to blame. We will say they should have done their job. At the e…

Jennifer Marley is 88 years of age and has been living in rented accommodation in Bantry for the past six years. She has received a notice to quit her rented home as the landlord wants to sell. We are frantically trying to get Jennifer a house she can call her own as she is not suited to sheltered accommodation at 88 years of age. Tomorrow, Independent Ireland will put forward a motion in the Hou…

We are treating this as an emergency. It is a housing emergency and that is why we are taking big decisions each and every week to try to increase housing supply. We have increased housing supply from the floor to around 30,000 homes each year. We need to increase that significantly to deliver 300,000 more homes by the end of 2030. We have been following the evidence base of the Housing Agency in …

I thank the Minister of State for his response and engagement on this matter. To iterate the scale of this crisis of mould, damp and poor conditions, it was seven years ago that the European Committee of Social Rights found the Irish State to be in violation of human rights and failing to take sufficient and timely measures to ensure the right to housing of an adequate standard for families living…

The Minister is determined to make this as confusing as possible. He is forcing out jargon and spin instead of solutions. He talks about RPZs, STRs and every acronym under the sun. Renters do not want that. They are looking for security, support and affordability. It is not rocket science. Unfortunately, the Government, specifically the Minister as the person with responsibility in this area, are …

The cost of building a new house is somewhere around €400,000 for a young couple or whomever. One third of the actual building cost comprises VAT, other taxes and levies. Will the Government consider doing anything about that? Would it be possible to increase the first-time buyers grant if people were incentivised to build smaller houses, like we used to do in the 1970s and 1980s. I refer to any …

Broadly speaking, LPT is a good thing. When it was introduced I welcomed the fact that it was part of a model to allow local authorities throughout the country to become self-financing and self-supporting. However, I have significant problems with the way it was put together and what the Bill does. In the first instance, local property tax was established to make local authorities self-funding. In…

While certain aspects of this Bill are welcome, such as the exemption adjustments and consideration for homes with defective blocks, it fundamentally fails to address some of the issues at the core of our local property tax system. These are issues that have long been raised by the Social Democrats. Our cofounder, Catherine Murphy, highlighted these issues from the outset. We would like to welcome…

I will speak again on behalf of the hard-pressed homeowners of this country, especially those in rural Ireland and in my constituency of Tipperary, from Tipperary town down to Cahir, Clonmel, Cashel and Carrick-on-Suir as well as the villages and rural houses. These people continue to be squeezed by this unjust and unnecessary local property tax. The Bill proposes to increase charges on the vast m…

I thank everyone who contributed to this debate. I took careful note of the points the 24 speakers have made. I will begin by thanking Members from the Government benches and elsewhere who voiced support for the Bill and who recognised the important role the local property tax plays in supporting public services and funding local authorities. I appreciate their support. As that support is a given …

I commend the motion. This is the type of radical reset we need in terms of housing. I do not need to repeat the words said by my colleagues. This Government is failing badly in terms of housing. I was at the Raise the Roof protest earlier and was struck by a woman who recalled the alleyways that James Connolly crawled through in the Easter 1916 Rising. She said an Irish man now sleeps in those s…

What those crowds outside the gates during the Minister of State's ten-minute speech heard was waffle and spin. They live the reality of this Government's failed housing policies. Their families, friends and co-workers live this reality. They know as well as we in opposition do that the Government at this stage might as well be a meme for fiddling while Rome burns when it comes to housing, because…

Has the Minister of State ever stepped back and reviewed the performance of Fianna Fáil in running the Department of housing over the past few years? I refer to a performance review, so to speak, because from the outside looking in, the performance of Fianna Fáil in the Department of housing is looking disastrous and in need of a complete overhaul. Across Kilkenny, we have dozens of council-owned…

I join with Deputy Doherty in extending my sympathy to all of those caught up in the very tragic and horrific plane crash this morning. We think of all of them and their families in what is an evolving story with, no doubt, more information to come. I too want to extend my sympathies to the Deputy's colleague, Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh, on the loss of her mother. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam dílis…

Established in 1954, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, is an intergovernmental organisation that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. It is headquartered in Geneva and currently comprises 24 member states and ten associate member states. Associate membership of CERN is a commitment in the programme for Government and a long-standing national …

I raise the process of approving housing whereby we have to go through voluntary housing agencies, then through the Department of housing and finally through the Department of public expenditure. I am dealing with one project with 217 apartments for which the process started in September last year. It has gone through Clúid, the housing agency, through the Department of housing and is now in the D…

The fundamental difference between the Government's attitude towards housing and the Opposition's attitude is that the Government thinks - the Taoiseach said it again today - that the answer to all the problems is just to provide more units. He believes that providing houses that have rents of €3,000 per month is okay so long as there is more supply in the market. He thinks that is going to fix ev…

Housing remains one of the defining issues of our generation. If we are serious about solving it, we must deal in facts, not sound bites as some in the Opposition have done and are focused on. Let us start with where we are now. Housing supply has increased significantly since Fianna Fáil re-entered government in 2020. In 2022, 2023 and 2024, completions were 29,644, 32,525 and 30,330 units, respe…

As the Minister of State knows, as does the Minister, housing is the most pressing challenge facing the State today and will define the Government's success. While the previous Government met its targets under the Housing for All policy, rising demand means we are now acting swiftly to further increase supply and improve affordability. The public, especially younger generations, expect urgency, bu…

Across Kilkenny, almost 100 council-owned homes lie empty. Over 60 of them will remain empty throughout 2025. Almost one third have been boarded up for over a year. Dozens of families and people in dire need of housing have been blocked from a home of their own this year. While the Government will try to pass the blame on to the local council, the fault and blame lies solely at the feet of the Gov…