2026-06-25

91. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to confirm the number of housing completions in Cork in 2025; the number of homes completed to date in 2026 in Cork; the number expected to be completed by the end of 2026; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48241/26]

I thank the Deputy for the question. It is good to see some focus on housing delivery in the rebel county. Increasing the supply of new homes is critical to alleviating pressures in the housing market, helping to moderate price growth and ease affordability challenges, 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. Data on new dwelling completions are published by the Central Statistics Office, CSO, on a quarterly basis. CSO data show overall housing delivery in Cork has significantly increased in recent years. Some 3,722 new homes were completed in Cork last year, an increase of 5% year-on-year and the highest annual delivery since the CSO data series began in 2011. This momentum continued into the first quarter of 2026, with 1,047 new homes completed, up 45% year-on-year, and again the highest first quarter completion figure since the CSO data series began. While the Department does not forecast new housing completions in any given year, delivery in 2026 is likely to be strong. The Department is monitoring any headwinds to ensure we buttress supply into 2027 and 2028 appropriately as new measures under Delivering Homes, Building Communities bed-in over 2026 to enable delivery of at least 300,000 new homes by 2030. We will do this 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 unprecedented level of investment the Government has committed will bring about a significant scale-up in the delivery of housing over the coming years, while also supporting the development of villages, towns and cities. While it is important to acknowledge the significant challenges ahead, it is equally important to highlight that a continued level of intensity of effort will be ongoing to reach the scale required to meet our shared goal of 300,000 new homes by 2030.

I thank the Minister of State. As the Minister of State will be aware, being from Cork, the reason I am raising this is that the number of new jobs being created in Cork is increasing every month and, therefore, the need for additional accommodation needs to be highlighted. We need to try to fast-track that housing. Cork City Council and Cork County Council are working hard with people making applications for housing and on developing and completing housing units. In the areas outside the city, in the villages where there are challenges with sewage treatment, can some of those projects be fast-tracked so development can proceed? I am talking about such places as Courtbrack, Grenagh, Carrignavar, Glenville and Whitechurch. They cannot progress unless the services are available. What does the Department intend to do to highlight that issue?

I thank the Deputy. He makes a valid point on employment in the county, and it is a key challenge. If you take not just the tech and pharmaceutical sectors but also CUH, which is such a big employer, many of the incredible team of nurses, doctors and other staff need access to housing. That is a challenge we have to address but we are doing so. There are key ways that the Minister in particular has directed travel in the last number of months. The city and county development plans are being reviewed at the moment and going through their public consultation phase. That needs to accelerated so appropriate land can be zoned, and with that investment will come. The private sector is responding well to apartment buildings through the incentives there. Housing activation funding for Cork has been very generous. On the question about villages and towns, Uisce Éireann, as far as I can see, is really building capacity and increasing investment in those villages and towns to deliver wastewater treatment.

On the issue of sewage treatment in villages, we still do not have a clear plan from Irish Water as regards access to services, including water services. For instance, in Whitechurch lorry loads of water have to be brought in every day because there is a well servicing the housing units there and it is not able to deal with demand during the summer months. It is likewise with Courtbrack. There has been a boil water notice in place there since September of last year and there is no indication from Irish Water as to when that issue will be resolved. Again, the situation is that a well is servicing all the housing estates there. Is there any plan to have a direct link between the main water schemes in the city or county to service those areas?

I thank the Deputy again. He raises a very important and relevant point, especially for our smaller towns and villages. This is where, as I was saying at the end of my last contribution, the significant investment announced by the Minister of almost €12 billion under the national planning framework and national development plan will allow Uisce Éireann to build capacity with respect to personnel and the funding of major infrastructure projects as well. Outside that there is capacity and we have heard of recent developments on the developer-led infrastructure that will allow developers to put in place their own wastewater infrastructure, where appropriate or up to a certain number of houses. That is obviously to be done in close collaboration with the EPA to ensure there are no legacy issues there. That is an exciting development for a few reasons. It allows a lot of those villages and towns where wastewater treatment is at capacity to expand and see people move in, which is key.