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cost of remediation and grant under scheme 2. Within 3 months of the passing of this Act the Minister shall lay before both Houses of the Oireachtas a report examining the gap between the actual cost of remediation for eligible homeowners and the grant provided under the scheme … with the scheme. When the Minister's predecessor, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, introduced the revised defective concrete blocks scheme very controversially in this House, railroading through the legislation and ignoring 80 homeowner-drafted amendments, we were told that the revised scheme would address the problems identified by affected

deal with the issues I raised. Is it a good idea to knock down half a block, to take down half a house when the house next door is equally damaged but that has to stay because that is not eligible for the scheme? That house might … going to play out, but I ask him now to come out and look at this issue of semi-detached houses, come and visit some of the houses that we are dealing with in Donegal, Mayo and these counties, and hopefully we can change his mind

social and affordable homes. We want to do more across our country with the local authorities to zone more land to ensure that housing supply increases. That is the number one issue for the Government. The Minister, Deputy Browne, has taken a number of interventions over the last … number of months with regard to the rental market, taxation decisions and the new housing plan, all to deliver increased housing supply so that people can own and buy their own home here. In respect of Sinn Féin's policies, it rejects the help to buy scheme which

what it feels like for people in their 20s, 30s or even 40s who have been forced to move back into their parents’ house and are now living in the box room when the Department of housing shares a video saying that maybe they should do the dishes … that is or the lack of hope that is out there? When I was in my 20s I was married, I built my house and I had my first two children. There is an entire generation out there whose lives are on hold or, worse still, an entire

Section 39(10)(b) of the defective concrete blocks Act 2022 sets out the powers of the appeals board. It may direct the Housing Agency or a local authority to reconsider a decision in line with the board's directions or it may replace the decision entirely with … that is an absolute fiction. Of the appeals heard so far, the panel has found serious and significant errors of law in the Housing Agency's decisions. These are not minor matters but fundamental failures. When this has happened, every one of these cases has been sent straight

thank the Deputy. I have heard him speak in this House passionately about lots of things, including the issue of dereliction in recent times. Dereliction during a housing emergency is a particular challenge as something that should be almost socially unacceptable. We have an emergency … looking for it to send out a very clear message that if you are sitting on a derelict property in a housing emergency, we are going to tax you. It is not just that we are going to tax you; it is also that Revenue will collect

that right and underpinning it in legislation, is exactly what we will have to do when we are bringing the legislation through this House. The Deputy is right when he says that it cannot be just a lick of paint or somebody pretending to resolve the dereliction … someone is sitting on land and hoarding it and it is in a residential zone, they are meant to be building houses on it. Their options are to build houses on the land, sell the land to someone else who will build houses

biggest failures of this Government is the whole area of affordable housing. In large numbers of local authorities across the State, there is just no plan to roll out affordable housing schemes. I can speak with authority about my home county of Donegal. Again and again, I have … submitted questions to the Minister and to his predecessor, Deputy O'Brien. I have appealed to them to put in place affordable housing schemes. If a family in Donegal with two adults and one child earns over €32,250, they cannot go on the social housing list

thank the Minister for finally coming before the Dáil to speak to this housing plan, a plan which is a blueprint for failure. It has next to nothing to say about rural depopulation because we know it will take real action to confront that problem. Communities across … barriers to rural planning and the absence of basic enabling infrastructure. Wastewater capacity, water connections and transport links are missing, and without them housing simply cannot be delivered. This is the direct consequence of a Government that has turned its back on rural Ireland. This housing plan offers

garda stay in Dublin when rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Dublin West is €1,400 to €1,600 and a house is €2,200 to €2,500? So-called affordable housing in Dublin West costs over €400,000. That is if they even … list. Three hundred people applied for around 60 houses. Despite the cost, they are all massively oversubscribed. Despite this bad news for those in housing need, Sinn Féin will continue to campaign for and champion the needs of all those without a home of their own. The Government

welcome the updated housing plan. The plan is only as good as the money that goes into it and ultimately this is the largest investment that has ever been made into housing. The launch of the infrastructure plan this morning will give the plan the credence it needs … funding, really there is no excuse but we do have a problem with red tape, bureaucracy and local authorities. If we want the housing crisis to be resolved or improved, we need our planning departments to look at every zoned site in towns and villages right across

programme for Government commits to investing additional capital in Uisce Éireann to support reaching housing targets. We are going to prioritise water and wastewater infrastructure to deliver the capacity to facilitate housing development in our towns and villages. I welcome the recent investment of over €12.2 billion … grow because the wastewater infrastructure is not there. I acknowledge and welcome the Minister's recent announcement whereby from January up to 40 houses can be developed in a local area. It will potentially give a lifeline and create a ripple effect in schools, shops and GAA clubs

homes over the lifetime of the plan, major investment in water, energy and transport with over €9 billion committed to housing alone in 2026. The plan is good, the money behind it is good but how it is delivered is what we will really be tested on here … bring back tradespeople that are domiciled overseas, as well as tradespeople from other countries, to work in their countries to help build houses and other critical infrastructure. We need to have such a policy. We have critical work visas for urban town planners and architects but we have

build houses there if Uisce Éireann will provide the infrastructure. Time and again, every chance I have had to raise housing in this Chamber, I have done so and at every opportunity, I will again. We want houses in Cloghjordan and Ballycommon and they can be built … infrastructure, but it is urgent. It is needed now, not in five or ten years. My generation needs it now. We need affordable housing schemes in Nenagh, Roscrea, Thurles and Urlingford and I am proud to represent all those towns. We need affordable housing for my generation

land beside Liffey Valley Shopping Centre in an industrial area right beside the M50. It would have made perfect logical sense to build housing right opposite a major shopping centre. People could just walk across the road to it and there was space for a school as well … right and centre, one of which is in the actual Liffey valley. This is St. Edmundsbury, where there is a proposal to put houses along a so-called transport hub that is regularly congested because of traffic rat-running to avoid the tolls on the M50. Throughout

Browne, and his junior Minister from Port Láirge. Is the Minister going to extend the situation whereby commercial properties can be used for housing without planning permission? That is so important. Is he going to do something about backyard developments behind houses, which are not mentioned this plan … What about a case in which a man houses himself in a mobile home? Seán Meehan from outside Clonmel in County Tipperary is being brought to the courts for putting up a nice timber house around a mobile home. He needs to be looked after, as do other

changes that are opaque and unclear. What is the outcome going to be? Fianna Fáil has been in control of the Ministry of housing since 2020. We are now six years in, and there are still planning issues that have not been dealt with, and I know there … issue of land that will be zoned, as I have raised with the Minister before. We are going to zone more land for housing development but there are already significant amounts of zoned land across the country. We have 80,000 planning permissions that are not being built

feel they have missed the opportunity to make representation on pre-legislative scrutiny. The people we are talking about bought or built their houses in good faith and they are depending on us to help them. These people are beyond stressed. I welcome this amendment, which … builder, plumber or painter, etc., at the moment. Recently, I spoke to a lady who told me they demolished the house but then could not find the foundations. They had to keep going down and down. She told me how much time it took to remove so much

broadly welcome that the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks (Amendment) Bill 2025 is finally before the House. Families have waiting for far too long for even the small improvements contained in these pages. Any step, no matter how modest, that puts … These are points that align with the 100% Redress party's agenda, which its TD, Deputy Charles Ward, has strongly articulated in this House, and which we fully support. However, that is where the positivity ends. The Bill, when stripped of its gloss, is still just

County Laois. When that application came through, the developer was proposing to put a wind turbine within 300 m of the nearest house. I objected very strenuously, and the community and I were united at that time. We met the developer and told it two words: "Go away … back a year and a half later, by which time it had moved the turbines to well over a kilometre away from any house. It dropped a few of them. It listened and now we have seven or eight turbines in the place, working and generating good renewable

review of the statutory protections afforded to civil servants and - this is where the Deputies from that side of the House have to listen - a clear mechanism for professional accountability when officials act outside of their remit, not within their remit. Therefore, if they are doing things right … protect them by using public funds to defend ultra vires actions, except where a genuine good-faith error can be demonstrated. This House has a duty to ensure that State power is exercised lawfully and transparently and that when it is abused, responsibility does not fall

provisions of budget 2026, this cumulative upper limit must be increased by regulation. The Estimates for my Department, passed by both Houses as part of budget 2026, include an allocation of €99.1 million for the Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund. This will be distributed in accordance with section … Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund by €99.1 million, to some €1.9 billion. This is achieved by way of the regulations submitted to the House today. I will now focus a little on each industry, starting with the horse racing sector. The horse racing industry is a cornerstone

class divide. I did not do that. The inference is that there is one. There are suggestions from Members of the House that this is an elitist activity, something I countenance greatly. Deputy Gogarty, along with a number of others, spoke about there being no activity … sections 12 and 13 of the Horse and Greyhound Racing Act 2001 provides that a draft of the regulations be laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas and a resolution approving the draft be passed by each House. I again ask for the support of the House

provisions of the 2021 Act were in place until 30 November 2021 and have been further extended eight times by resolutions of each House of the Oireachtas, in November 2021, May 2022, November 2022, May 2023, November 2023, May 2024, October 2024 and May 2025. Deputies will … continue to enjoy the benefits of outdoor hospitality while the measures to put it on a permanent footing are going through the Houses of the Oireachtas. In May of this year, Government agreed the extension of the Act for a further six months. The measures provided

those apartments are built because where are the young people going live if they are not built? It suits Deputy Doherty for the housing crisis to continue. We are trying to fix it. Sinn Féin oppose every single measure. Yesterday, when we brought in a measure … extend the benefit to approved housing bodies, to extend it to student accommodation and to make sure young people could benefit from the help to buy, Sinn Féin voted níl agus níl. That was Sinn Féin's decision, not ours. We have very different views in relation

residential construction from 13.5% to 9% now applies beyond the point of sale and to the point of construction as housing agencies may own the land, and many valuable housing projects would not have benefitted from the change otherwise; and if he will make a statement

Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance the role credit unions play in supporting the delivery of social housing through the Credit Union Approved Housing Body Fund; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [72868/25

Deputy John Paul O'Shea asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of tenant in situ applications, for social housing and cost-rental properties, completed, by local authority, for the years 2023 and 2024 and to date in 2025, in tabular form

Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the key measures taken to expand social housing provision during 2025; his priorities for 2026; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [73534/25

Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the key measures taken to expand affordable housing provision during 2025; his priorities for 2026; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [73535/25

Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the key measures taken to boost overall housing supply during 2025; his priorities for 2026; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [73543/25

Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage for a report on the work of the Housing Activation Office during 2025; his priorities for 2026; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [73544/25

Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage whether his Department has conducted any internal analysis, review or assessment since 2023 to explain increases in the average cost per social housing unit in Cork city and Cork county; and if so, to detail

Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage whether his Department benchmarks the cost of delivering social and affordable housing units in Ireland against comparable EU member states; if so, to detail the most recent benchmarking exercise carried

Deputy Sean Fleming asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to outline the criteria guidelines, rules and regulations in relation to requirements by Local Authorities to purchase houses for people with special requirements; the total amount of funding provided to Laois County Council

Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of households on the social housing waiting list and the number in emergency accommodation in County Waterford at the end of 2023, 2024 and 2025, in tabular form. [73726/25

Deputy James Geoghegan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage further to Parliamentary Question No. 40 of 25 November 2025, when he anticipates a conclusion or further update between Dublin City Council and Pembroke Beach DAC in respect of the delivery of affordable housing in this

Deputy James Geoghegan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he can detail, in relation to the affordable housing fund, cost rental equity loan scheme and secure tenancy affordable rental investment scheme, the names of each respective delivery partner currently awarded funding under

Deputy Sorca Clarke asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the level of housing and local authority service provision in County Longford and Westmeath compared with the national average. [72687/25

Deputy Maeve O'Connell asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage when the announced removal of the blanket pet ban on tenants in social housing will be introduced. [72789/25

Deputy Maeve O'Connell asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if the announced removal of the blanket pet ban on tenants in social housing will apply retroactively to tenancy contracts signed before this announcement. [72791/25

Deputy Liam Quaide asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the guidance provided to local authorities in regard to the assessment of savings when it comes to assessing income for social housing support, in particular when it concerns a disabled person whose savings are a result

Deputy Shane Moynihan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the average cost per local authority for constructing houses in 2024 and 2025 where the local authority directly contracted builders, with figures provided separately for each local authority. [71538/25

Deputy Shane Moynihan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the average purchase price paid by each Dublin city and county local authority for houses purchased on the open market in 2024 and 2025, with figures provided separately for each local authority. [71540/25

Deputy Paul Lawless asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of applications on the social housing waiting list for County Mayo, in November 2025, by towns, in tabular form. [71572/25

Deputy Paul Lawless asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of housing applicants in County Mayo requesting one-bedroom, two-bedroom, three-bedroom and four-bedroom accommodation, as of November 2025, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter

Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the overall percentage of social housing delivered in 2025 under universal design principles. [72147/25

Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage whether he will publish figures on the numbers of people on social housing lists longer than seven, eight, nine and 10 years and so on, respectively, by local authority administrative area based on SSHA figures provided

Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the allocation for 2026 social housing acquisition programme. [72150/25

Deputy Noel McCarthy asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if there are instances whereby the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant will be approved for an applicant who has sold their house, moved into a vacant property, and then applied for the grant for that property