Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 July 2023
557. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the estimated cost of setting up a new State construction company; the estimated cost in year one of building 20,000 homes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36966/23]
View answerAs set out in the reply to Question No. 2 of 6 July 2023, the Land Development Agency has been established for the purpose of developing affordable and social housing on behalf of the State. The LDA also works to procure housing units more broadly for cost rental and affordable purchase.
Separately, the Housing Agency provides a range of housing functions and services, including assisting local authorities to deliver their housing programmes.
It is not clear that establishing another housing agency, particularly when housing supply is increasing, would see any increase in overall housing delivery. Accordingly, the cost of establishing, and delivering housing through, such an agency has not been estimated.
My Department does not provide estimates on the cost of construction in the manner asked by question and would depend on many variables. Overall, it should be noted that almost 30,000 homes were built in 2022. This significant uplift in supply has continued into 2023, with nearly 31,000 completions in the year to end-March 2023, the first time since 2009 rolling 12-month completions have surpassed 30,000. The strong uptick in commencements in Q4 2022 has also continued into the first half of 2023. More than 15,500 homes commenced construction between January and June this year, the most for this period since records began in 2014 and up 9% on the same period last year.
