419. Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the key measures taken to expand social housing provision since January 2025; his priorities for same for the rest of 2026; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53470/26]

Under Delivering Homes, Building Communities, the Government is targeting the delivery of 300,000 new homes by 2030, including 72,000 social homes. The plan seeks to significantly scale-up delivery of new-build social homes to an average of 12,000 homes per year and includes key measures to support local authorities to achieve this and, thereby, reduce their waiting lists.  These measures include:

• The new single approval process for all new build social housing projects up to a value of €200m;

• Mandating the use of standard house layouts and specifications for Social Housing;

• Facilitating the use of Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) through a standardised design approach;

• Introducing a revamped renewal programme focused on tackling dereliction and vacancy in social housing;

• Expanding the role and remit of the Land Development Agency (LDA);

• Expanding and streamlining the operation of the Land Acquisition Fund;

• Financially incentivising local authorities to exceed annual ‘own build’ social housing targets;

• Funding ring-fenced social and affordable 'new-build' housing delivery teams in each local authority.

• A transition to a call for proposals approach for the delivery of social homes funded via the P&A CALF funding model which will enhance the suitability of homes being made available to local authorities.

• In addition, the Housing Activation Office (HAO) will identify and seek to address barriers to the delivery of public infrastructure projects required to enable housing development.

Under Delivering Homes, Building Communities, each local authority will prepare a Housing Delivery Action Plan (HDAP) setting out their planned delivery of social and affordable housing to 2030 in line with targets set by my Department in order to ensure the 72,000 social homes will be delivered by 2030.  In preparing their HDAP, each local authority will reflect local need to ensure the right mix of homes to respond to local need and priorities.

It should be noted that existing HDAPs run to the end of 2026 and it is expected that new HDAPs, which will run to 2030, will be in place by the end of Q3 2026.  Each local authority's current HDAP is published on their individual websites.

The social housing build target for 2026 is 10,200 homes.  Building on the record delivery of 9,088 social homes in 2025, there is a strong approved pipeline of projects in place for 2026 delivery, which suggests, subject to projects being satisfactorily progressed on site by local authorities and AHBs, that the 2026 target can be achieved.

My Department publishes the Social Housing Construction Status Report (CSR), which provides details of social housing developments and their location that have been completed, are under construction or are progressing through the various stages of the design and tender processes. The CSR is available for analysis on my Department’s website at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/collection/cb885-social-housing-construction-projects-status-reports/

My Department also publishes comprehensive programme level statistics on a quarterly basis, on affordable housing delivery including cost rental delivery activity by local authorities and other delivery partners. These are published on the statistics page of my Department’s website at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/collection/6060e-overall-social-housing-provision/

The Government is committed to supporting local authorities to accelerate housing delivery across all available channels.