Did the Deputy oppose it then?
TDs / James Browne
James Browne
Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
0
questions asked
Members of the Government answer questions rather than ask them
145,875
words spoken in the chamber
145,131 as a minister, 744 as a TD
431
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
From the Dáil chamber only: committee meetings are not in this archive.
Members of the Government answer parliamentary questions rather than ask them, so this page lists none of theirs.
Month by month
Low months are usually recesses, when the Dáil does not sit. The archive runs to 22 October 2026.
Contributions to debates 670 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Contributions |
|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 |
| January 2025 | 0 |
| February 2025 | 13 |
| March 2025 | 36 |
| April 2025 | 15 |
| May 2025 | 46 |
| June 2025 | 41 |
| July 2025 | 60 |
| August 2025 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 32 |
| October 2025 | 59 |
| November 2025 | 46 |
| December 2025 | 20 |
| January 2026 | 51 |
| February 2026 | 43 |
| March 2026 | 43 |
| April 2026 | 3 |
| May 2026 | 70 |
| June 2026 | 27 |
| July 2026 | 22 |
| August 2026 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 2 |
| October 2026 | 41 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 394 contributions in the regular slots, such as Leaders' Questions and Priority Questions. Speech from the chair is not counted.
Party, constituency and offices
- constituency Wexford 29 November 2024 to now
- party Fianna Fáil 29 November 2024 to now
- office Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage 23 January 2025 to now
We are in a housing crisis. Coming in here and being snide is not the solution. If the Deputy will let me give the answer-----
The Deputy supported it.
I clarified what the Deputy said. We did come in here. I will deal with the Deputy's question rather than shouting over him.
Cost rental is only one measure, as I have already outlined.
We are putting measures in place in order that everybody has the solution they need. Ultimately, we have to increase the supply of housing across the country. That is the only way we will address homelessness, high rents and ensure that people get the homes they need. We have gone from 20,000 to 30,000 homes. We will make the next step change. That is why we made rapid decisions over the past number of months and wil…
Cost rental is only one measure, as I have already outlined.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 10 and 36 together.
The drafting of the apartment and duplex defects remediation Bill is progressing. Various issues requiring legal advice are under consideration. The Bill is included in the Government legislation summer programme and I intend to seek Government approval to publish it shortly. The general scheme will be made available to undergo pre-legislative scrutiny as soon as …
The aim is to get the work done as quickly as possible. Regarding the interim scheme, four pathfinder projects covering almost 600 residential units have been identified. These projects are progressing and will allow the mapping of the application of the remediation process into simple steps to identify the pinch points and their solutions and to provide consistency across the submissions by competent professions and…
I acknowledge that there has been some delay with the drafting. Some of that has arisen as a result of the Housing Agency receiving legal advice outlining the provision of the funding by the agency to oversee it is likely to trigger a requirement to comply with public procurement law. The Attorney General subsequently confirmed the need to align the application process in compliance with EU procurement rules. The app…
The programme for Government commits to the introduction of a new, all-of-government national housing plan to follow Housing for All, underpinned by multi-annual funding. This plan will take a whole-of-government approach, as Housing for All did. My Department is engaging across government to agree the high-level measures to be included in the plan. They must be supported by the required funding in the national devel…
The Deputy's proposal a number of weeks ago was simply to write blank cheques for local authorities. That is not a solution. We have to manage our finances and we have only a certain amount of funding. We want those voids brought back in but, as the Deputy will recall, one of the properties was a property that could not be let because it had not had a stairs for five years. There is no reason or rationale for that to…
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 even more housing an…
I thank Deputy Sheehan for asking when funding will be made available for a project. This is the shortfall of €5 million to cover infrastructure for the Mungret LDA development of 250 units in Limerick. The Deputy's question relates to the development of the lands at the former Mungret College, which is a key strategic priority for Limerick City and County Council. The site will see the delivery of 250 affordable and…
Funding for the housing activation office will come under the national development plan, which is currently being agreed. Limerick City and County Council has received local infrastructure housing activation fund, LIHAF, funding for the delivery of the first two phases of a new distributor road at Mungret. LIHAF funding approval of €22.1 million was given, of which €6.6 million was funded by the Department and the ba…
The Department has not received any formal submission on funding. We have been made aware that there is a funding issue and we are engaging with the local authority to see what is the best way forward to address it.
I thank Deputy O'Sullivan for raising this question about the encouragement of new technologies in the construction sector, including modular housing. I understand he has raised this issue on numerous occasions.
The use of modern methods of construction, MMC, is a key policy measure to boost construction sector productivity and to support the scaling-up of delivery of new housing supply. MMC is a collective term whi…
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 the modular building…
I agree. It is simply taking too long to get certification for the use of modular builds in this country. The Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, is engaging with his counterpart in the Department of enterprise. We are determined to get to a situation where we can get certification done at a much quicker pace. We need it done. We have an ageing workforce. It is getting more difficult to replace them. If we want to go …
I thank colleagues for all their important contributions here today. I echo the comments made by the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, earlier and reassert this Government's commitment and determination to tackle the challenges in housing. Housing is a cross-sectoral challenge that has a real impact on people's lives. Our goal remains a housing system that serves the needs of our people. While there is still much to…
How do you know?
That is not true. It is in the memo.
We know there is a housing crisis and the only way to address that is by increasing supply. We have increased it from 20,000 to 30,000 homes. We need a step change to get to 50,000 homes and more so that people have the homes they want to live in where they want to live in their communities.
Rent pressure zones were due to end this year, as Deputies well know. If the Government and I did not take action everything w…
Correct.
I am not.