Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 20 Mar 2025

Vol. 1064 No. 5

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions

Rental Sector

Eoin Ó Broin

Ceist:

1. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will introduce an amendment to the Planning and Development Act 2024 empowering planning authorities to apply administrative fines to short-term letting platforms such as a company (details supplied) and others where they advertise short-term lets in rent pressure zones that are not in compliance with planning law, as proposed in the Short-term Lettings Enforcement Bill 2022, Second Stage of which was passed by Dáil Éireann in May 2022. [13255/25]

Deputy Eoin Ó Broin

As the Minister knows, the overwhelming majority of short-term lettings within the State are operating illegally and in clear breach of planning law. In 2022, the House dealt with legislation to strengthen the enforcement of the short-term letting regulations, specifically within rent pressure zones. Is this a proposition the Minister and his departmental officials are currently considering in parallel to the ongoing work for the register for short-term letting, which one of his Cabinet colleagues is working on?

Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Deputy James Browne)

I thank the Deputy for his question. We recognise the need to address the short-term letting sector in areas of housing need, especially in areas of high demand such as Dublin city, and where properties are not compliant with planning requirements. The Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment is committed to introducing a short-term letting and tourism Bill that will provide the statutory basis for the introduction of regulatory controls for short-term lets, including the establishment of a register to be managed by Fáilte Ireland, and for the implementation of the harmonised EU short-term rental regulation, which was adopted on 14 April 2024 and will be applicable from 20 May 2026. The short-term letting and tourism Bill will include shared data requirements such as specific addresses and activity profiles for each short-term let unit. This will enable authorities to implement and enforce a balance between the short- and long-term accommodation sectors. Member states will be required to introduce penalties for online short-term rental platforms that do not comply with their obligations under the short-term rental regulation. This matter will be addressed under the short-term letting and tourism Bill.

It is important that there is a clear and consistent policy approach at national and local authority levels to determining planning applications for short-term lets. Any amendment to planning legislation will be informed by policy and consider multiple factors, including long-term housing need in the local authority area, the location of the proposed short-term let and the need to balance housing need with the potential impact on tourism and economic development.

Deputy Eoin Ó Broin

It has been a decade since the issue of unregulated short-term lets in high rental demand areas was raised on the floor of the Dáil. Significant work was done on a cross-party basis in the Oireachtas housing committee in 2018. An all-party report was agreed and we worked with the Minister's predecessor, the former Deputy Eoghan Murphy, on the 2019 regulations. The problem with the regulations is they are now virtually unenforceable.

As I am sure the Minister knows, our party is willing to work with him on the short-term letting and tourism Bill and we agree there needs to be an appropriate response that addresses unregulated short-term lets in rent pressure zones in a way that does not negatively impact tourism product in more rural constituencies. There is still a need, however, to introduce penalties on platforms such as Airbnb and estate agents that are currently facilitating and profiting from widespread breaches of planning law. I am interested to hear more on what the Minister means by penalties on platforms in his response. He might provide a little more detail in that respect.

Deputy James Browne

I thank Deputy Ó Broin again for raising this important question. We know that short-term lets are a problem, not just in Ireland but right across the world, particularly where properties are taken over and used. It is an increasing problem in Ireland, putting significant pressure on areas of high demand, such as Dublin city.

I am working with the Minister, Deputy Peter Burke. Ireland has introduced regulations, but enforcement has proven to be very difficult. To set out some of the challenges, planning breaches where someone has put up a physical building are easy to identify and prosecute. When it relates more to a service, though, it can be quite difficult to detect it and gather the necessary evidence to bring a prosecution.

I am determined to tackle this issue. It is putting huge pressure on our rental sector and homelessness. I agree that it is unacceptable for companies to profit from breaches of the Planning and Development Act or any law.

Deputy Eoin Ó Broin

Unfortunately, many of us warned of the challenges of enforcement when the former Minister, Eoghan Murphy, was introducing the 2019 regulations. There is a solution to this as regards the platforms, that being, to amend the Planning and Development Act to allow planning authorities to apply administrative spot fines to platforms like Airbnb for every day they advertise properties that are not in compliance with planning law. I strongly urge the Minister's Department - in parallel with the Minister, Deputy Burke's work on the short-term letting and tourism Bill - to look at parallel changes to the Planning and Development Act to do exactly that. This would remove the onerous requirement for local authority planning sections to have to go to the courts to prove something very difficult.

It is a simple requirement. A short-term letting platform like Airbnb or an estate agent should be required under the planning Acts to secure clarity on planning compliance from the host. If that is not available to the planning authority on request, every single day that property is advertised, an administrative fine that does not require court sanction is applied. That would clean up the Act. 2026 is too far away and if the planning changes were done earlier, they could have huge effect, particularly in areas with a significant rental and homelessness crisis, such as Dublin city, Cork and others.

Deputy James Browne

It is unacceptable that there are commercial entities profiteering from situations where people are in breach of the law. We want an approach where we can enforce the law in such a way as to ensure these properties are brought back into use and are available for long-term renting in high pressure zone areas, while ensuring the impact on more rural areas that rely on short-term lets for economic and tourism purposes is minimised. I intend to bring a fresh pair of eyes to that enforcement. The Deputy's suggestions will be part of those considerations.

Housing Provision

Conor Sheehan

Ceist:

2. Deputy Conor Sheehan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to confirm if he intends to review the housing completion target for 2025; the number of new homes his Department estimates will now be completed in 2025; the additional measures he plans to take to increase housing construction; the engagement he has had with the Department of Finance and Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, respectively, on new taxation and expenditure measures to boost delivery; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12698/25]

Deputy Conor Sheehan

Will the Minister confirm whether he intends to review the housing completion target for 2025, how many new homes does his Department estimate will be completed in 2025, what additional measures does he plan to take to increase housing construction, and what engagement has he had with the Departments of Finance and public expenditure on new taxation and expenditure measures to boost delivery?

Deputy James Browne

The programme for Government commits to delivering more than 300,000 houses between 2025 and the end of 2030, an average of over 50,000 per annum. Delivery over the period will need to rise incrementally to 60,000 homes per year by 2030. This target of reaching an annual average of over 50,000 homes is both ambitious and credible. It is drawn from the work done by the ESRI in 2024 on population growth and structural household demand.

We clearly need to significantly scale-up capacity across the construction industry in the coming years and reaching 60,000 new homes by 2030 will be an enormous challenge. This can be facilitated by targeted support to grow the construction industry’s capacity year-on-year, establishing a platform from which housing supply can be ramped up to the higher levels needed. It is intended to revisit these targets in 2027 if, reflecting on demand and growing construction capacity, we need different targets for 2028 and subsequent years.

There is ongoing engagement between my Department and the Departments of Finance and Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform regarding all financing arrangements related to housing. These will continue both in the context of review of the national development plan, the multi-annual funding requirements for the new housing plan committed to in the programme for Government and as part of normal annual Estimates discussions. My Department does not forecast new housing completions in any given year, however.

Deputy Conor Sheehan

Regarding targets, there has been a great deal in the news in the past of couple of months, including yesterday, to show that the Government showed will not reach its stated targets for the next three years. We have 250,000 too few homes for the population and the Housing Commission report is very clear.

How does the Minister intend to make sure we reach the housing targets as set out in the programme for Government? I urge him to revisit the targets before 2027. What sort of engagement has he had with the Department of public expenditure? I am hearing that the AIB windfall money that was promised has not actually come down the line yet.

Deputy James Browne

The Department never makes projections of what housing delivery will be. We have heard in the past number of weeks everything from 30,000 to 40,000 through different sectors in terms of various projections for completions. The outcome will be what will be. My intention will be to maximise the delivery of housing over the next 12 months and, indeed, over the next number of years. As Minister for housing, I am re-examining every aspect of how we deliver on those targets and what else we can do to ensure that they can be delivered. There are clear challenges in the system to the delivery of housing and we need to look at this from a fresh perspective in terms of how we can reach those targets.

I am in regular contact with the Department of public expenditure and reform, but I would point out that there is record funding for capital delivery of housing for this year.

Deputy Conor Sheehan

I did not hear anything specific in the Minister's reply in regard to what the Government is actually going to do to get us out of this quagmire we are in. I want to follow that up by asking about apartment delivery. We have a specific issue with apartments. It was revealed this morning in The Irish Times that the croí cónaithe city scheme had only delivered 17% of its target. It has delivered nothing in Limerick, the city I represent. Rents in Limerick rose by 19% last year and Limerick had the largest increase nationwide in terms of house prices.

How does the Minister propose to make apartment construction, particularly outside of Dublin, viable again? What new measures does the Government intend to introduce? We know that section 23 did not work during the boom, but we clearly need to do something because apartment approvals dropped by nearly 40% last year.

Deputy James Browne

I agree, in that apartment delivery has collapsed. That is very clear. We need to have radical thinking in terms of how we get that supply of apartments moving again. That is where the significant shortfall in reaching our targets has happened, particularly in Dublin city but also in our other cities, including Limerick. Apartments need to be delivered. I intend to take significant action to get those moving. I am waiting for the Housing Agency to publish its report in the next couple of weeks. We will examine its proposals in certain areas and look at what we need to do to ensure we get apartments delivery moving again. We need to take radical action on it.

Housing Provision

Eoin Ó Broin

Ceist:

3. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to comment on the ongoing delay in his Department's approvals for social and affordable housing projects funded via SHIP, CAS, CALF, CREL and AHF; to confirm the total number of projects submitted to his Department under each funding stream since September 2024 to date in 2025; the number that have been approved, and the local authority, or approved housing bodies, involved formally notified of that approval during the same time period. [13256/25]

Deputy Eoin Ó Broin

A significant number of social and affordable housing applications were delayed in the Minister's Department at the latter end of last year, pending approval. We do not have the final figure but it could be anywhere in the region of 5,000 units. At Cabinet, the Minister got approval to progress 3,000 of those. However, my understanding is that the vast majority of those have yet to be formally approved with the relevant local authorities and approved housing bodies. Will the Minister confirm the status of the approvals for those 3,000 units, in particular the communication with the local authorities and approved housing bodies? Will he tell us the total number of homes that were delayed pending approval last year and how many are still awaiting approval?

Deputy James Browne

The Government is fully committed to working with all stakeholders to deliver social, affordable and cost rental homes at scale, with a record level of investment being provided for the delivery of housing in 2025 - capital funding of €6.5 billion supplemented by current funding of €1.65 billion. The number of new-build social homes in the pipeline for delivery in the three-year period 2025 to 2027 is circa 36,000 homes, the highest ever for a three-year period. The strongest national delivery of social housing since 1975 was recorded in 2022 with 10,254 social homes delivered. This was exceeded in 2023 with 11,938 homes.

Affordability and the chance to own a home is at the heart of the Government’s housing policy. As detailed under Housing for All, the Government plans to deliver 54,000 affordable homes by 2030, with 36,000 affordable purchase and 18,000 cost rental homes. A comprehensive implementation strategy is in place to support the various affordable housing schemes now being delivered by a range of delivery partners.

Since September 2024, my Department has approved 273 social and affordable housing projects and continues to approve projects. As with all Exchequer-funded projects, my Department, as approving authority, assesses each project application for suitability, value for money and compliance with the various requirements of the applicable funding scheme. There will always be projects on hand with my Department which are either under assessment or the subject of further engagement with local authorities or approved housing bodies. This is perfectly normal in the context of the circa 2,500 social and affordable housing projects which have been or are being handled by my Department currently and are scheduled for delivery in the period 2025 to 2027.

Deputy Eoin Ó Broin

The Minister's predecessor had a terrible habit of refusing to answer very reasonable questions from the Opposition during Priority Questions. I had hoped that the Minister would not repeat that pattern. Unfortunately, he has done so just now. He has failed to address the question. There was not a perfectly normal situation at the end of last year. We know that because the local authorities, approved housing bodies and building contractors and developers have told us that. There was a huge delay in anything up to 5,000 units of social affordable housing. That was caused in part by a significant overspend in the Department because there were challenges around the operation of the cost rental equity loan as well as the social housing investment fund.

The Minister sought and secured approval for 3,000 social and affordable homes at Cabinet. Of those, how many notifications have been passed on to local authorities and approved housing bodies so that they can get working on them? Of the remainder, how many are still awaiting approval? These are reasonable questions. I got a poor reply from the Minister to a parliamentary question over a week ago when he refused to provide me with the information. We should not have these kinds of rows, so please will the Minister address the question I have asked?

Deputy James Browne

I thank the Deputy for his question. We received an additional €450 million a couple of weeks ago to release up to 3,000 new properties to be delivered. We are working our way through those approvals as quickly as possible. As the Deputy will know, they need to be assessed before final approval. The majority of those have now been done. It is something that is in flux at any moment in time, but I expect the last of those to be approved in the next couple of weeks in terms of funding.

Regarding other applications on hand, we have an open call, applications come in and we process them. However, the fact that an application comes in does not mean it is necessarily going to be funded.

Deputy Eoin Ó Broin

The additional €450 million of capital approved by Cabinet still means the total capital expenditure for social and affordable homes this year is less than the total outturn last year. It is an improved situation but it is not a better situation. To be clear, is the Minister telling me that a majority of those 3,000 units have completed all of the processes with the Department and the relevant local authorities and approved housing bodies have been notified? Is he also saying that all of those 3,000 units will have the formal notification to the local authorities and approved housing bodies within a couple of weeks, as he said?

I appreciate the Minister is new in the Department and getting his head around this. At the end of last year, there was an exceptional situation. It was the first time that had happened in my time tracking social and affordable housing delivery. It has caused huge difficulties, including potential damage to relationships between approved housing bodies and building contractors. It has caused enormous frustration in local authorities. There is a real fear it will impact on output, maybe not this year, but in terms of Government targets for social and affordable housing next year and the year after. Will the Minister provide absolute clarity that all of the delivery agencies, local authorities and approved housing bodies will be fully notified of those 3,000 approvals within a matter of weeks?

Deputy James Browne

I understand the frustration among local authorities and approved housing bodies but there was a general election, which caused a certain delay in projects. Those projects are being worked through now as quickly as possible, though. A final check always has to be done on every project before its approval is notified to the local authority. I cannot guarantee that every single house will be approved within that, if an issue arises on the final check.

What I see is that, subject to everything being in accordance with the requirements through those checks, any of them that are still outstanding would be approved in the coming weeks.

Planning Issues

Rory Hearne

Ceist:

4. Deputy Rory Hearne asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if his attention has been drawn to recent CSO data showing that the number of new homes approved annually fell by over 21% in 2024; his plans to introduce an alternative policy measure to address this; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12895/25]

Deputy Rory Hearne

In terms of the planning applications, we have seen a significant fall in applications. The figures are down over 21% annually, and apartments even further. What are the Minister's plans to address this? In particular, does it not show that the Minister's housing policy and Housing for All as a policy has not worked, that new measures are required and, in fact, that the reliance on institutional investors to deliver homes and apartments is an unreliable approach?

Deputy James Browne

The planning permission data released by the CSO last week is concerning. It can be seen within the data that the overall dip is driven mainly by a fall in the permissions for apartments.

This illustrates the enormous challenge of meeting our revised housing targets, the critical role of apartment delivery in this regard, and the importance of securing private capital investment to fund this delivery at the levels needed over the next decade and beyond. Government is committed to meeting this challenge and is taking a twin-track approach with a mix of pragmatic short-term and strategic long-term actions to help build on the recent significant uplift in delivery and sustain this into the future.

Government is already examining actions to scale-up delivery in the immediate term, pending completion of a new all-of-government national housing plan committed to in the programme for Government. To this end, we are actioning priority commitments in the programme for Government with the potential to make an immediate impact, such as establishing a new strategic housing activation office.

While supporting longer-term delivery, such measures will also help maximise the impact of measures already introduced to strengthen the housing supply pipeline, including the development levy waiver and water connection rebate, which seek, inter alia, to activate the large number of planning permissions already in the system and address viability issues in relation to apartment delivery.

Further proposals for measures to help scale-up delivery to 300,000 new homes by the end of 2030 will be considered in the context of the new plan.

Deputy Rory Hearne

I do not see the radical reset in the Minister's response that the Housing Commission called for and the Minister himself agreed was needed. We know the definition of insanity is continuing the same policy or same approach and expecting a different outcome.

On the question about the planning and apartments, there is over-reliance on institutional investors. Institutional investors invest on the basis of their profit viability projections. If they think that there is not sufficient profit there, they do not invest. Is the policy plan essentially to increase their profits so that it becomes, in their estimation, viable? We know what that means. It means rents rising or other ways. Is the Minister talking about, as we have heard, tax breaks? Is he talking about more subsidies? The Government's own croí conaithe scheme, The Irish Times showed today, has only delivered 20% of the apartments it was supposed to deliver. In that, developers could get €120,000 per apartment. Where is it proposed that the subsidies would end?

Deputy James Browne

This year the Government has already committed €6.5 billion towards delivering housing in this country. We need probably a minimum of €20 billion spent on housing to deliver the necessary housing. The rest of that money has to come from the private sector. Financial firms, whether national or international, are a key part of that because you need that private funding to deliver those properties.

While the Deputy is quick to criticise, his own manifesto commits to private funding to deliver housing in this country and yet he is not setting out what he would do in terms of where he would get that funding from.

We will look at this radically again. I accept international firms need to make a profit. That is stating the obvious. We need to look at this to see how we can get those investors back into this country - they are in other countries - to deliver through the private sector the housing that we need in this country.

Deputy Rory Hearne

The Minister is repeating the same tropes that the Taoiseach repeats that we have had no alternatives. If the Minister looked at our election manifesto, he is correct that we talked about using private investment but it is the particular type of private investment. The Taoiseach is also spinning this by saying we are against private investment. We are not against private investment in housing. What we are against is shaping the entire housing system around the profitability demands of institutional funds and institutional investors. There are multiple different forms of private investment. One of the solutions we have put forward is using a new State saving scheme, as they do in France, to leverage the €160 billion that is available in banks in this country. We cannot just rely on commercial banks to channel that money into housing. What they have in France is a state saving scheme that creates a fund that funds affordable housing directly. Why can we not do that? That is private finance but it is not the speculative private finance that the Government seems to be obsessed with.

Deputy James Browne

It is private finance that will also want a profit. No matter what way you do it, private finance will always seek a profit - even those Irish savers if you tapped into them. I am not against that. We are going to examine that carefully to see if that can be done, but they will still want a profit for their funding. They are not going to put their money away if they do not think they are going to make a profit. No matter what way you do this, private finance requires a profit to instigate that type of investment. We will look at all the possible levers to do that.

Housing Schemes

Eoin Ó Broin

Ceist:

5. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to confirm the total delivery of affordable purchase and cost-rental homes in 2024 by local authorities, approved housing bodies and the Land Development Agency; and his views on the low output under these schemes and growing number of people unable to access these properties due to the unaffordable rents and house prices. [13257/25]

Deputy Eoin Ó Broin

Can the Minister tell us, if he has the figures, the final outturn for the affordable housing schemes delivered by local authorities, approved housing bodies and the Land Development Agency in 2024? Does he share my concern about the low output of these schemes to date and the increasing unaffordability of both the cost rentals and the affordable purchase units across the State?

Deputy James Browne

I thank the Deputy for his question. Under Housing for All, the Government set out plans to deliver 54,000 affordable homes, including 36,000 affordable purchase and 18,000 cost-rental homes, by 2030. The target for 2024 across all of the various delivery streams was 6,400.

A comprehensive implementation strategy is in place to support the various affordable housing schemes now being delivered by a range of delivery partners.

My Department publishes programme-level statistics on affordable and social housing delivery activity by local authorities and delivery partners in each local authority area. Data up to quarter 3 2024 is already published on the statistics page of my Department's website. Data for quarter 4 2024 is currently being verified, and I expect my Department will be in a position to report shortly.

In the first nine months of 2024, a total of 4,480 affordable housing options were delivered across both affordable purchase and cost rental delivery streams via local authorities, the Land Development Agency, approved housing bodies and through the first home scheme.

While the quarter 4 figures are being verified, I anticipate that 2024 will be the best year to date for delivery of affordable homes by our delivery partners and I note the hard work going into that delivery right across the sector.

Affordable housing schemes are now operating at scale and this momentum will continue as the pipeline is developed by local authorities, approved housing bodies and the Land Development Agency.

Deputy Eoin Ó Broin

Unfortunately, the facts, as provided on the Department's website, flatly contradict the Minister's assessment of the success of these schemes. The target for affordable purchase and affordable cost rental in 2022 was 2,100 units. The Government missed that by 52%. For 2023, the target was 3,500. The Government missed that by 61%. For this year, the target for affordable homes to be delivered by local authorities, approved housing bodies and the LDA is 4,400. At the end of quarter 3, only 1,297 had been delivered and it is highly likely the Government will miss its target again this year. Likewise, the first home scheme, which, of course, as the Minister will be aware, I do not believe is an affordable housing scheme but which is recognised as such in the legislation, was to deliver 6,000 purchases over three years but, in fact, has missed that target by 50%. There is also a real concern about the increasing cost to buy and to rent. Is the Minister not concerned by the low delivery rates, the missed targets and the increasing cost of these so-called "affordable" homes.

Deputy James Browne

As I say, I am awaiting the quarter 4 figures to be verified but I anticipate 2024 will be the best year to date for the delivery of affordable homes by our delivery partners. We will continue to work with all of our partners to increase the delivery of affordable homes in any shape or manner that they can be delivered in.

Deputy Eoin Ó Broin

Obviously, we will debate that matter when those figures are finally published but given that the Minister is operating from such a low base, to have the best year to date is hardly something to celebrate.

Let us look at the affordability in two cost-rental projects, both on public land. In O'Devaney Gardens, the cost of the so-called "affordable" rentals there will be just under €1,500 a month for a one-bed, just under €1,700 a month for a two-bed and almost €1,900 a month for a three-bed.

That is substantially above the rents being charged for existing renters in the private rental sector. Oscar Traynor Road is not much better. Let us consider the increased price of the so-called affordable purchases. In a scheme in Newcastle West, advertised by Limerick council only this week, the lowest entry-level price of a so-called affordable home is €361,000. If someone wants to own the home outright, it will cost €435,000 rising to €455,000 for some of the properties. That is more than double the actual price paid by people in Newcastle West, according to the property price register, for all homes sold last year bar one. Surely the Minister has some concern at the rising cost both of the so-called affordable rentals and the so-called affordable purchases.

Deputy James Browne

Rents for cost-rental homes are set to cover the cost of delivery, financing and managing and maintaining the homes modelled over at least 40 years. Cost rents paid will vary between households and schemes and is dependent on the size of the home and the location but cost rental is a more affordable option compared with the pressures of the private market and will always be made available at least 25% below comparable market rents. Rents for cost-rental homes are already below full cost levels thanks to the effect of subsidy elements of funding those streams.