2026-06-25

83. Deputy Joe Neville asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the housing projects that are currently under construction in Kildare North and those which are expected to commence before the end of 2026; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48233/26]

106. Deputy Sean Fleming asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage his response to the latest monthly housing commencement figures; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48047/26]

169. Deputy Naoise Ó Muirí asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the total number of housing commencements in Dublin City Council and Fingal County Council in 2026; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48187/26]

My question concerns the key issue of housing and all the different types of infrastructure that go with it. I ask the Minister for the information on all the housing projects currently under construction in Kildare North and those expected to commence before the end of 2026; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 83, 106 and 169 together. I thank Deputy Neville for raising an important question on housing projects currently under construction in Kildare North and those expected to commence before the end of 2026. My Department publishes data on residential commencement notices in each local authority every month. Commencement data shows commencement notices were lodged in respect of 2,099 new homes in May, more than double the 1,035 notices received in May last year. Commencement notices for 13,120 new homes were lodged from January to May this year, up 161% on the 5,033 notices received in the same period last year. This progress is being mirrored across the country. In Fingal, some 1,623 commencement notices were lodged from January to May this year, over 11 times more than the same period last year. In Dublin city, 1,047 commencement notices were lodged, on par with the corresponding period in 2025. In Kildare, 439 commencement notices were lodged from January to May this year, up 40% on the same period last year. While it is not possible to predict when developments with planning permission will commence on site, some 1,406 planning permissions for new homes have been granted in Kildare in the last 12 months, to the end of quarter 1 of 2026, conveying an increasingly stable pipeline. Increasing the supply of new homes is critical to alleviating pressures in the housing market, helping to moderate price growth and ease affordability challenges across the country, ensuring everyone has a range of housing options available to them, whether they want to buy a house, rent one, or are in need of social housing. In this regard, supply has increased significantly over recent years. Over the last five years, to the end of quarter 1 of 2026, almost 153,000 new homes have been delivered. This compares with 85,262 in the previous five-year period and just 29,278 in the five years before that. Delivering Homes, Building Communities seeks to build on this, and significantly accelerate delivery of new homes by focusing on activating land and creating the optimal environment to encourage housing activity, including regulatory reform, tax incentives and the largest ever capital investment in the history of the State, with €275 billion invested in infrastructure over ten years through the national development plan. The Government is already implementing a host of actions to boost delivery. The recently revised national planning framework is a major step forward in this regard and will help to increase capacity and accelerate homebuilding across the country, while the new housing activation office, HAO, will work to address infrastructure barriers to housing delivery as a matter of priority. The HAO is taking a proactive and targeted approach to increasing housing commencements by focusing on the early identification and resolution of infrastructure constraints that can delay development and by co-ordinating investment across key delivery partners. As part of this work, the Government launched the €1 billion housing infrastructure investment fund, HIIF, in January 2026, which is managed by the HAO and designed to ensure that essential enabling infrastructure is in place to unlock housing land. Under call 1 of the fund, I approved 82 projects last week. These projects have the potential to unlock land to deliver 86,000 new homes, with capacity for a further 113,000 homes over time. These projects range from local activation measures in towns and cities to larger strategic investments capable of supporting housing delivery at scale. The announcement I made last week represents the first step in building a pipeline of housing enabling infrastructure to support communities and housing delivery for many years to come. Looking ahead, the housing activation office is actively developing future calls under the HIIF, building on the success of call 1 and strengthening the focus on strategic land banks and new communities aligned with public transport, along with broadening the range of delivery partners. Additionally, the Planning and Development (Amendment Act) 2025 is essential legislation to deal with expiring planning permissions and to encourage activation of housing. An enhanced Land Development Authority, LDA, is working to deliver more private housing, as well as social, affordable and cost-rental houses. Increasing the number of new apartments being constructed is an essential component of the Government's housing ambitions, given the compact growth priority in the national planning framework. The new plan has taken decisive action to reduce the overall cost of apartment construction while increasing delivery in our urban areas. Budget 2026 introduced a suite of taxation measures aimed at stimulating the supply of new apartments, such as reducing the VAT rate on the sale of new apartments to 9%, and introducing an enhanced corporation tax deduction for apartment construction costs. My Department is also progressing the preparation of a draft national planning statement for the Government’s consideration to replace the current apartment guidelines. The overall purpose is to strike an effective regulatory balance, ensuring that apartment development meets the needs of society in terms of standards and quality, while promoting an increased level of overall output. Sectoral feedback and preliminary data on planning permissions and commencements suggests that the sector is responding positively to the renewed environment for apartment delivery. My Department continues to systematically monitor investment, planning and commencement activity in apartments to examine the pipeline for new apartments and inform ongoing policy consideration in this area. The programme for Government commitments relating to housing are well reflected in the new plan and, combined with the unprecedented level of investment the Government has committed, will bring about a very significant scale-up in the delivery of housing over the coming years, address the needs of the most vulnerable in our communities, make buying and renting homes more affordable and support the development of villages, towns and cities across the country.

I thank the Minister very much for his response. I will go through the specific statistics relating to County Kildare afterwards. I thank the Minister for the information. I welcome the announcement last week from the housing activation office and the Minister’s team. I also welcome the infrastructure we have in Kildare. The new bridge in Celbridge is an issue I raised when I was a county councillor in the context of the local area plan, and I have been pushing for the funding to be delivered since being elected to this House. It has now been delivered under the housing activation office. We also have the Maynooth outer orbital route, MOOR, the inner relief road in Naas and the roads in Confey. These projects are extremely welcome. On the other hand, I am also conscious that we are struggling with Uisce Éireann, from the network perspective, to deliver water infrastructure. This is the case out around Prosperous, Robertstown, Leixlip, Celbridge and Maynooth, where we see regular burst water mains. While we are pushing for new houses, and I welcome that, at the same time, the infrastructure has to be able to meet that demand.

I agree with the Deputy. I thank him and all his Government colleagues for ensuring that County Kildare got a substantial amount of funding under the housing infrastructure investment fund that will, critically from the perspective of my Department and that of the Government, unlock housing. It will also, no doubt, help to unlock key community services as well. As the Deputy will be aware six projects in Kildare were approved. These include part of the Newbridge southern outer orbital relief road, the Naas northwest quadrant and canal quarter in Naas, the Naas inner relief road, the Captain's Hill upgrade in Confey, Leixlip, the Celbridge-Hazelhatch mobility corridor, and phase 1 of the MOOR at Crewhill in Maynooth. The Deputy is also right, however, in relation to water infrastructure. In approving these types of funding under the housing infrastructure investment fund, we are using the housing activation office where we have Uisce Éireann and the ESB. We are ensuring coherence such that where roads funding has been made available, we also have the electricity supply, water supply and wastewater treatment capacity to ensure housing is delivered in these key areas.

I thank the Minister. We are broadly aligned on infrastructure. The other key element of infrastructure is the social element, be it from a sporting perspective or related to the sports capital grants that will assist local sports clubs, and indeed local community groups, in which I am heavily involved. Housing is about the delivery of infrastructure but also about the delivery of the associated strands, with which the Minister's team is currently heavily involved. Being from north Kildare and having been a councillor there for so long, it is the area I am most conscious of. The issue in Kildare speaks to many of the issues we all have, specifically on the eastern corridor but also in the growth areas in many major towns across the country. The country is doing really well economically. It is very well run from a Government perspective, and we can see that. At the same time, however, we need to consider population growth and push, as the Minister is doing, towards further growth in housing and the infrastructure required.

Again, I thank Deputy Neville for raising important issues in County Kildare, particularly north Kildare, with which he is most familiar. The key infrastructure projects announced under the housing infrastructure fund are critical. It is also about working with ESB Networks and Uisce Éireann to ensure all the required additional capacity is put in place so the community facilities raised by the Deputy, be they crèches, sports facilities, schools or healthcare facilities, can also be put in place. We must have a co-ordinated approach. We are very much doing that through the Housing Activation Office. That is very important.