I thank Deputy Mac Lochlainn for raising this important issue with regard to the SCSI and the draft follow-up on construction costs under the defective concrete block grant scheme. My Department keeps costs relating to the defective concrete blocks scheme under continuous review. As the Deputy is aware, following updated costs reports from the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland and advice from an expert group est…
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 continuously keep the scheme under review through consistent and regular stakeholder engagement. An implementation steering group for the defective concrete blocks grant scheme has been in place since 2023 and comprises officials from relevant local authorities, my Department, the Housing Agency and homeowner liaison officers. This regular stakeholder engagement is augmented by regular meetings.
We have done a re…
I am very conscious of the distressing situation people in Donegal and other counties are going through. I have been to Donegal and spent considerable time listening to people and getting a better understanding of the distressing situation they are in. The wider review has to start on or before July 2026. It may start sooner if the review comes in in relation to IS 465/2018 being changed because that in itself trigge…
I thank the Deputy for the question, which relates to Elm Park in Buncrana and advancement of the plans to relocate families. The Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Act 2022 commenced on 22 June 2023. It underpins the current grant scheme and the related regulations that were adopted on 29 June 2023. I visited Donegal last year and met with many of the affected residents. I under…
I thank the Deputy and the other Deputies in Donegal for their work in this area. I have met with the families and seen the videos. We know flood relief schemes take a considerable time. That relocation proposal needs to be advanced. I will continue to work with the residents and with the Deputies from Donegal on coming up with a scheme as quickly as possible. The current legislation did not necessarily envisage relo…
Gabhaim buíochas leis na Teachtaí as ucht an rúin seo. Ní chuirfidh an Rialtas in aghaidh an rúin seo. Le comhaontú an Tí, leanfaidh mé ar aghaidh le mo ráiteas i mBéarla.
The Government is not opposing this motion given the urgent need for housing and the Government's housing action plan, Delivering Homes, and Building Communities 2025-2030, which includes a range of actions aimed at increasing housing supply acros…
Maybe the Deputy wants to elaborate on what standard of Irish he wants me to be able to say I have.
We are getting into gradation.
I thank all Deputies for their contributions. Addressing homelessness and increasing the supply of homes required to do so is my absolute priority. The programme for Government is committed to working towards ending homelessness by 2030. To meet this commitment, Delivering Homes, Building Communities was developed as an integrated housing and homeless plan. The new plan is based on two key pillars: activating the sup…
I was called out for not being here and I am responding to that.
The Deputy is here to raise a Topical Issue; he is not here for this debate. We are seeing a race to the bottom with this Trump-style anger that is expressed only in the hope of getting elected if enough anger is created against the Government. The Labour Party did that in 2011, and where did it end up?
The party created a kind of Faustian pact by whipping up anger among people.
I ask that Members opposite deal with the issues at hand and stop trying to create bogeymen for vote-getting purposes That will solve nothing. Everyone on this side of the House wants to solve homelessness. I do not expect Members opposite to agree with our policies. That is not how it works or should work. Challenging us on policy, as Depu…
I move amendment No. 1:
To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following:
acknowledges that:
— the new housing plan 'Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025-2030: An Action Plan on Housing Supply and Targeting Homelessness', is focussed on putting in place the conditions to enable delivery of a minimum of 300,000 new homes between 2025 and 2030;
— the plan includes a commitment to deliver…
As we know, we live in a housing crisis. That is a supply crisis. We have a rental crisis which is a supply crisis, and we have a homelessness crisis which is a supply crisis. What we are endeavouring to do here is strengthen tenants' rights, which we are doing through security of tenure, which means tenants will know how long they can stay in a property, while driving investment. I say to Deputy Hearne that investme…
You stand up here and you are constantly attacking anything to do with investment. You seem to believe that bandying around the words "landlord" or "investment" is enough mud to keep throwing.
Nobody in this House has a monopoly on empathy.
We are trying to solve what is a housing crisis driven by a supply crisis. What have we heard from the Opposition? Have we heard a single solution? The Deputies' only proposal - Deputy Boyd Barrett referred to misery - is to freeze the housing crisis into a permanent misery. That is what they are looking to do.
What they want to do is keep the current situation in perpetuity. What I need to do to solve the housing crisis is not simply about protecting existing renters. It is about all those people at home who need somewhere to live.
That means driving the supply of homes in this country. We have delivered more social homes in 2024 than in any year since the 1970s. We have delivered record affordable homes and last year we delivered over 36,000 new homes, the highest since 2011. We have to drive the supply and that needs investment. The Government is investing the largest amount of money in the history of the State into housing delivery. One in e…
For those who are currently in a rental situation, their position does not change - for 240,000 renters it does not change.
On the one hand, you want it to stay the same, on the other hand you want change.
In a single sentence earlier, Deputy Hearne said that the landlords are licking their lips, and that they are also getting out. At least when Deputy Ó Broin makes a hypocritical statement he sandwiches it to try to hide it a little bit. You just actually said it in a single sentence. It makes no sense.
It is just word spaghetti in the hope that something lands or when you leave the Chamber you have got 20 seconds for your social media.
What we have to do is provide housing solutions. We have to drive the supply of homes if we are going to solve the housing crisis in this country.
That is what we are doing, while also providing, as I say, for the first time in the history of the State, security of tenure. That is the crucial part we are doing here. Deputies do not have to like everything in the legislation but they are going to vote against security of tenure. That is what they are going to do.