149. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of social and affordable homes delivered in Waterford in 2025; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36677/26]

173. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of new homes commenced in Waterford in 2025; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36678/26]

I propose to take Questions Nos. 149 and 173 together.

From 2022 to the end of 2025, over 22,000 starter home supports were delivered nationally including 544 in Waterford.  In 2025, 164 starter home supports were delivered in Waterford.

Last year, Waterford City and County Council delivered 218 new social homes.  Of this figure, 151 were new build homes, 14 were acquisitions and 53 were delivered under leasing programmes.  When the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) (73) and Housing Assistance Payment (HAP)(134) are taken into account, 425 social housing solutions were delivered in Waterford in 2025.

Waterford City and County Council has brought 390 homes back into use under the repair and lease scheme. This accounts for 53% of national delivery.  Additionally, there are a further 40 Repair and Lease units in the Department’s pipeline for Waterford City and County Council, across 7 projects.

Waterford City and County Council has delivered 77.5% of its social housing build target for 2022-2025, however, the latest Social Housing Construction Status Report (CSR) shows a strong pipeline in place in Waterford as of the end of 2025, with 590 homes at various stages of design and procurement including 93 homes on site.  Details of the social housing construction projects that have completed or are in the pipeline in Waterford are available in the Construction Status Reports on my Department’s website.

My Department also publishes comprehensive programme-level statistics on a quarterly basis on social housing and starter home delivery activity by local authorities and delivery partners for each local authority area.  Data is currently available to the end of Q4 2025 and is published on the statistics page of my Department’s website.

Further to this, all local authorities, including Waterford City and County Council, have published their Housing Delivery Action Plans (HDAPs) for the period 2022 to 2026 on their websites.  These action plans set out how the local authorities will meet their current housing targets.

Data on residential Commencement Notices, disaggregated by local authority and dwelling type, are published monthly on my Department's website.

In Waterford, some 1,637 commencement notices were lodged across 2024 and 2025, an increase of 33% on the 1,234 commencement notices lodged across 2022 and 2023. Some 659 new homes have been notified as commenced in Q1 2026, 51% more than the whole of 2025 when 437 homes commenced and the highest quarter on record for Waterford since records began in 2014.

Delivering Homes, Building Communities seeks to 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.

Government remain focused on continuing to bring forward measures that will continue to increase the supply of new homes across all tenures to make sure that 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.