556. Deputy Sean Fleming asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of house completions in each of the years from 2022 to date; and the estimated number for 2026 in County Laois. [73481/26]

Increasing the supply of new homes is critical to alleviating pressures in the housing market, helping to moderate price growth and ease affordability challenges across the country, ensuring 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.

In this regard, supply has increased significantly over recent years. Over the last five years, to end Q2 2026, more than 156,600 new homes have been delivered. This compares with 87,819 in the previous five-year period and just 29,855 in the five-years before that (Q2 2012 – Q2 2016).

Data on New Dwelling Completions are published by the Central Statistics Office on a quarterly basis at: data.cso.ie/table/NDQ05. CSO data show overall housing delivery in Laois has significantly increased in recent years.

Some 2,751 new homes completed in the period 2022 to 2025, an increase of 129% on the previous four year period. This momentum continued into the first half of this year, some 451 new homes have been delivered in H1 2026, up 22% year on year and the highest H1 total since the CSO data series began in 2011.

Supply continues to be the focus of the Government's housing policy. While my Department does not forecast new housing completions for a particular year, delivery in 2026 is likely to be strong. My Department continually monitors developments that may impact delivery to ensure we buttress supply into 2027 and 2028 appropriately. New measures under Delivering Homes, Building Communities continue to bed in throughout 2026 in order to enable the scale up in delivery required by 2030.