James Browne
Wexford · Fianna Fáil · Ireland
“I cannot accept amendments Nos. 10 and 11. The interpretation of "lawfully resident" and "habitually resident" is construed in accordance with section 20A, which sets out the new residency requirements for social housing applicants.”
“The safety net provision is to be provided by the local authority on a night-to-night basis, and this is to allow local authorities to reassess the circumstances each day to determine whether the safety net should still be provided.”
“I cannot accept amendment No. 21. This amendment proposes the introduction of a social housing passport allowing households to transfer between local authority areas while retaining their original waiting list or transfer list position. The amendment as it stands is well-intentioned.”
“No one factor is intended to be decisive and it is not necessary for a person to score strongly on all five factors outlined in section 20A(7) in order to get a positive decision. However, the local authority decision-maker must be confident that there is strong evidence that it is the applicant's main centre of interest.”
“In relation to Senator McCarthy’s amendment, while it was a very well intentioned and constructed amendment, it has been disallowed. It was not my decision on those matters. I am satisfied the safeguards and safety net are there for those who are not entitled by way of legal or habitual residence.”
“In practical terms, if an Irish citizen has severed ties abroad and has decided to return home, the process of establishing habitual residency could be determined from day one.”
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“The other priority categories for second-hand acquisitions are properties that allow persons or families to exit homelessness; one-bedroom properties to deliver on housing first targets; and specific housing required for people with a disability or other particular priority needs, including older people. In total, €325 million has been provided for all 31 local authorities for this purpose in 2025, of which Roscommon County Council has been allocated funding of €2 million. To date, Roscommon County Council has only drawn down 29%, or €585,547, of its €2m allocation for acquisitions. The provision of a capital funding allocation will help promote best practice in obtaining value for money and provide local authorities with the flexibility to respond to needs and priorities locally within the categories of need being prioritised.”
“I thank Deputy Daly for raising this important question in relation to Roscommon County Council and the funding allocated for the tenant in situ scheme for 2025. I thank the Deputy for his ongoing engagement in relation to this important issue. The Government is providing continuing and substantial financial support to local authorities to acquire second-hand properties for priority categories of social housing need, including tenants in situ who have been in receipt of supports under HAP and RAS and who had received a notice of termination.”
“The Deputy is rightly passionate about keeping our young people in this country and providing affordable homes as a key solution to keeping young people here. That is what we want to deliver, and we want to accelerate the number of affordable homes that are being delivered. It is certainly something I regard as extremely important. I am working with each local authority to ensure that those affordable homes are available where they are needed in each and every county. I will continue to work with the Deputy and look forward to engaging directly with both local authorities in Galway in the coming weeks when I visit Galway to see how we can ensure those affordable homes are being delivered.”
“There are 14 cost-rental homes to be provided in Barna in early 2026, which should be part of a cost-rental equity loan scheme as well. We want to see more affordable homes and will continue to work with the local authorities and local Deputies.”
“I thank the Deputy again for raising this question. It is a matter he has worked very hard on and has campaigned on to ensure we can have those affordable homes, which are an essential part of our housing delivery and to ensure we have private homes people can afford to buy, affordable homes people can access, and social homes across the spectrum so everybody has access to a home they can afford. I hear the Deputy on Galway East. I will be visiting both local authorities in the coming weeks and engaging with them to see what more we can do to support them in delivering affordable homes. In supporting the development of Galway city and county's affordable housing programme, the Department is funding dedicated affordable housing administrative and technical staffing posts, with seven in Galway city and six in Galway county.”
“Building on this progress, my Department will continue to engage with all delivery partners to further the development of the affordable housing delivery pipeline for 2025 and beyond and to ensure the affordable housing programme responds effectively to the affordable housing needs identified at a local level. Under the programme for Government, the Government committed to introduce a new starter home programme across the public, private and AHB sector that promotes home ownership and secures long-term rental tenures for young people and fresh start applicants. My Department is currently progressing that commitment and it will form part of the next housing plan.”
“Under Housing for All, the affordable housing delivery target for 2025 is 6,400 and a very strong pipeline is in place across our delivery partners, including local authorities, approved housing bodies, the Land Development Agency and the first home scheme. Galway City Council has funding approval in place for three schemes to deliver 124 affordable purchase homes. Galway County Council has funding approval to support delivery of 61 homes in Claregalway. Both local authorities have further proposals in development. In addition, approval is in place for the delivery of the first cost-rental homes by an approved housing body in Galway city this year, with further cost-rental homes to be delivered in 2026 and 2027.”
“I thank the Deputy for raising the important issue of expectations for the delivery of affordable housing in 2025. I also thank him for his ongoing engagement on this issue, which is one he campaigned very strongly on. The Government is fully committed to delivering affordable housing at scale and continuing to accelerate housing supply across all tenures. In 2024, more than 7,000 affordable housing options were delivered nationwide by a range of delivery partners, exceeding the target of 6,400 for the year. Overall nearly 13,000 affordable housing solutions have been delivered since the launch of Housing for All, which is huge progress from a standing start in 2021.”
“We are going to get under the hood in the local authorities where these delays are happening and ensure these voids are being brought back and that the best practice the best local authorities are carrying out becomes standard right across the country.”
“Again, getting these voids back into play as quickly as possible is essential. Record funding is provided for the local authorities. There is inconsistency across them; there is no question about that. Some local authorities take the view of ongoing maintenance that when the property is vacated it is got back into a state where it can be re-let as quickly as possible. Other local authorities seem to take a considerable time assessing those properties and some carry out a very large amount of refurbishment work that quite frankly is not necessary. The property just needs to be brought back to a condition where it can be re-let. It should be in that condition anyway when it is being vacated, unless the previous tenants have done something untoward, which is very rare. In my experience, social housing tenants are excellent tenants.”
“There is little or no reason for these voids not to be turned around as quickly as possible when they are vacated. Works carried out should be what is necessary to turn those voids around, whereas the challenge is some local authorities are taking significant time to address them by carrying out substantial works that quite frankly are not necessary to re-let a property.”
“I thank the Deputy again for raising the question. I assure him the Government commitment is there to ensure we have a planned maintenance programme for our local authority stock. The largest-ever voids programme was funded by the previous Government in 2020 and the Department provided uncapped funding for those dwellings vacant for more than 12 months in 2020. Subsequently it was acknowledged that legacy vacancy should have been dealt with and a more streamlined programme has been implemented to support the works necessary to meet rental standards. We want to encourage local authorities to have a consistent basis of turning these voids around as quickly as possible. Some local authorities are very effective and some not so much. Legacy vacancies should have been resolved.”
“While the management and maintenance of local authority housing stock is legally a matter for each individual local authority under section 58 of the Housing Act 1966, the approach being developed is necessary to ensure a strategic approach to the management and maintenance of the housing stock informed by stock condition surveys is in place and that vacancies are turned around quickly.”
“They should therefore be in a strong position with respect to long-term vacancy and be able to further the transition to a strategic and planned approach to stock management and maintenance, with the ongoing support of my Department. With this in mind, it is my intention the new voids programme will have a renewed focus on prompt turnaround and re-letting of vacant units by focusing only on those works necessary to ensure compliance with the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2019. Non-essential works should be carried out under the local authority’s planned maintenance programme informed by stock condition surveys, whereby all housing components are on an inspection, repair and replacement cycle.”
“I thank the Deputy. The programme for Government commits to the introduction of a new voids programme and work is under way in my Department to develop and roll out that programme. As Minister, my focus is on building on the strong progress made over recent years in tackling local authority vacancy levels, which was supported and enabled by significant Exchequer funding for my Department over the past ten years and in particular since 2020. In total, more than €360 million has been recouped to local authorities since 2014 under the voids programme, which has supported the refurbishment and re-letting of 25,672 dwellings. Given the very positive impact of that investment it is expected local authorities should have dealt with legacy vacancy issues by now.”
“I again thank the Deputy for raising the important issue of homelessness and especially child homelessness. I will continue to engage with him. I will meet the two Galway local authorities in the coming weeks. I will head to Galway to meet both the city and county councils. Homelessness is a national issue but it has regional variations in terms of both causation and how we address the particular issues. I am aware of the Deputy's data that shows that area is having particular challenges outside the Dublin region, so I want to engage with the local authorities. The staffing will remain under review, but we want to ensure the supports are being put in place to ensure we can prevent people going into homelessness in the first place and that where it happens people are transitioned back out of homelessness as quickly as possible.”
“A key prevention measure over the last few years has been the provision of funding to support local authorities to purchase more than 3,000 properties from landlords to convert to long-term social housing under the acquisition scheme. The tenant in situ acquisition scheme has been an important measure and significant funding has been provided this year for second hand acquisitions, with €325 million already made available. My Department continues to engage with local authorities on the operational details for second hand acquisitions.”
“I thank Deputy Connolly for raising this very important issue. He has raised this matter with me on numerous occasions and he campaigned on it. The issue of child homelessness in particular is very dear to the Deputy's heart and it is also extremely important to me that we address this issue. The prevention of people going into homelessness is absolutely critical and that is what we are working on. Obviously, there is the broader issue of increasing supply. That is the ultimate solution but in the meantime, until we get supply up to where we need it, we will continue to work to help prevent people from going into homelessness in the first place. We are working on the development of the national homeless prevention framework this year to ensure all possible measures are being taken across Government to prevent homelessness.”
“The total funding provided by my Department to each of the homeless regions in 2024 was €384,999,954, and to date in 2025 €81,523,279 in funding has been provided. As requested, my Department will make this data available to the Deputy in tabular form.”
“Including HAP and RAS, 20,292 social housing solutions were delivered throughout 2024. The programme for Government commits to providing emergency accommodation to everyone who needs it. An allocation of €303 million has been made under budget 2025 to provide homelessness prevention services, emergency accommodation and other services for households experiencing homelessness. This funding will also support the provision of supports that households require to exit emergency accommodation to a tenancy, including tenancy sustainment services and housing first. In addition, capital funding of €25 million will support the delivery of high quality transitional and emergency accommodation for individuals experiencing homelessness.”
“I thank Deputy Connolly for raising the important issue of the funding provided to housing authorities for the provision of emergency accommodation in 2024 and 2025. Supporting individuals and families at risk of, or experiencing, homelessness is a priority for Government and me. Critical to this is increasing the supply of housing. The Government is committed to increasing supply with a record level of €6.8 billion in capital funding being made available for the delivery of housing in 2025. The capital provision is supplemented by a further €1.65 billion in current funding to address housing need. This will allow us to build on the more than 10,500 new social homes which were delivered in 2024, through build, acquisition and leasing, including 7,871 new-build homes.”
“I thank Deputy McGrath for his question and I fully agree with him that in addressing our housing needs in this country, we need to deliver private houses for those who can afford them and affordable houses for those who need help to bridge the gap to own their own homes. We also need to provide social houses. We must ensure that options are there for each person in this country so that their housing needs are met and they have the homes they need, whether social, affordable, or private. We must work to ensure that people can live in the homes and communities they want to live in and can feel safe and secure growing up in their local communities. We will continue to engage with the Deputy to ensure that the afford piece is a central part of everything we do.”
“Through the LDA's market engagement initiative, Project Tosaigh, 302 homes are expected to be delivered in 2025 at Horgan's Quay and a further 337 are expected to be delivered at Marina Depot in 2027, consisting of a mix of cost and social housing. I want to see more affordable homes being delivered in Cork city and the wider Cork area.”
“I thank the Deputy for raising the important issue of affordable housing. I also thank him for his regular engagement with me on the issue of how we can develop further affordable housing. In terms of the pipeline of delivery in Cork city, since the launch of Housing for All until the end of quarter 4 in 2024, 747 affordable housing solutions have been delivered via a range of delivery partners. To date approval has been given for ten projects in Cork city under the affordable housing fund, which will deliver 465 affordable purchase homes. In addition, ten approved housing body projects have been approved to date under the cost-rental equity loan scheme, with the potential to deliver 978 homes by 2027.”
“Building on this progress, my Department will continue to engage with all delivery partners to further the development of the affordable housing delivery pipeline for 2025 and beyond and to ensure that affordable housing programme responds effectively to the affordable housing needs identified at a local level. Under the programme for Government, the Government committed to introduce a new starter home programme across the public, private and AHB sectors which promotes home ownership and secures long-term rental tenures for young people and fresh start applicants. My Department is currently progressing this commitment and it will form part of the next housing plan.”
“Under Housing for All, the affordable housing delivery target for 2025 is 6,400 and a strong pipeline is already in place across our delivery partners, including local authorities, approved housing bodies, the Land Development Agency and the first home scheme. Both Cork City Council and Cork County Council continue to work proactively with all delivery partners, with Cork City Council having a programme in place to deliver 465 affordable purchase homes with affordable housing fund support by 2026, of which 260 homes have already been delivered.”
“I thank Deputy McGrath for raising the important issue around expectations for the delivery of affordable housing this year. I know it is a matter that is important to the Deputy. The Government is fully committed to delivering affordable housing at scale and continuing to accelerate housing supply across all tenures. In 2024, more than 7,000 affordable housing options were delivered nationwide by a range of delivery partners, exceeding the target of 6,400 for the year. Overall, nearly 13,000 affordable housing solutions have been delivered since the launch of Housing for All, which is huge progress from a standing start in 2021.”
“It is perfectly normal that local authorities continue to engage with various people who they felt needed tenant in situ usage in advance of the allocation for this year. Those acquisitions will be purchased this year for those people. Cork has significant money, as do all the local authorities. However, what Sinn Féin is doing again here - and it is fundamentally dishonest and is a trick the party has pulled before - is comparing the result at the end of one match to where we are halfway through another match.”
“I know you do not like my answer, but shouting me down will not stop me giving it, okay, Deputy? The reality is that Sinn Féin's housing policy proposes to significantly reduce second-hand acquisitions. I suggest Deputy Gould read it. As to what we have done, in some local authorities, unfortunately, significant amounts of money have been used for refurbishment, €5 million in the case of one local authority. That was never the purpose of this scheme. These are houses that are already being rented out; they should not need huge amounts of money on refurbishment. I have met with the Cork City Council executive, I have been down in Cork and we have continued to engage with all the local authorities to address the situation.”
“I have not misrepresented Sinn Féin's policy. Its policy is very clear. The policy I read referred to 1,800 houses reduced by 200 each year, down to 800, so Sinn Féin's policy is to significantly slash second-hand acquisitions. It is in black and white in its own policy.”
“Then there is, as Sinn Féin proposes, the full-year reset the Deputy seems to be looking for for this year. The reality is that one engages in acquisitions, there is a significant overhang from last year, that will be worked out through this year, additional funding will be provided for next year and we will keep the matter under review.”
“I thank the Deputy for his question. We have provided significant money for second-hand acquisitions for this year. The second-hand acquisition programme was always introduced as a temporary, short-term measure to deal with the ending of the eviction ban. Sinn Féin's own housing policy proposes a very sharp reduction in tenant in situ acquisitions to 800, far below what we have to address this situation. The Deputy needs to be honest and look at Sinn Féin's own housing policy. He wants to reduce the number of acquisitions to 800 over the coming years. Even Sinn Féin's proposal for this year would not deal with the hangover.”
“The provision of a capital funding allocation will help promote best practice in obtaining value for money and provide local authorities with the flexibility to respond to needs and priorities locally within the categories of need being prioritised. Tenant in situ acquisitions continue to be supported and prioritised where other solutions cannot be found for the affected tenants. It is a matter for local authorities to assess the circumstances of each case and decide the appropriate action. The arrangements for 2025 will ensure a more targeted and focused acquisitions programme. My Department continues to engage with local authorities on any challenges which emerge in order to ensure that tenant in situ acquisitions can continue in 2025 where no other solutions exist for the affected households.”
“No local authority has drawn down all its funding or even come close to it. My Department engaged with local authorities on the operational details for the second-hand acquisitions programme, and a circular setting out the arrangements issued to them on 31 March 2025, with individual allocations for the local authorities being notified to them on 1 April 2025. Under revised arrangements for second-hand acquisitions in 2025, local authorities received a capital funding allocation for the acquisition of homes for the priority categories of tenant in situ properties that allow persons or families to exit homelessness; one-bedroom properties to deliver on housing first targets; specific housing required for people with a disability or the elderly; and vacant properties under the buy and renew scheme.”
“I thank Deputy Ó Broin for raising this important question about the tenant in situ scheme and housing first. Tenant in situ acquisitions have been an important measure in the prevention of homelessness since their introduction in 2023. The Government has therefore agreed to continue such acquisitions in 2025 and has increased the funding available for second-hand social acquisitions from the €60 million allocated under Housing for All to €325 million through the allocation of an additional €265 million a couple of months ago. In budget 2025, €60 million was allocated. The Minister, Deputy Chambers, significantly increased this funding only a couple of months ago by an additional €265 million. To date, local authorities have drawn down only 20%, or €64.13 million, of the €325 million which has been allocated for acquisitions in 2025.”
“I again thank the Deputy for his question. Housing is the number one priority for this Government, and that runs across all the different Departments. We have our Cabinet subcommittees where we work with the various Departments. In response to the increased demand as a result of a significant increase in population and economic demand being put on our grid, we have a plan in place, that plan is being worked out and we will deliver the electricity we need to provide the homes we will deliver and to help our economy continue to grow, which in turn gives us the funds, the taxes, that we need to help build those homes.”
“This working group is tasked with accelerating the delivery of our electricity grid. This year will see the Irish regulator approve the investment in the Irish electricity grid for the period 2026 to 2030. The Deputy has raised concerns. They exist and we all acknowledge that there are challenges, but the Department, regulator and Government will be responding to them in the coming years.”
“We are all aware that the high population growth and strong economic growth led to increased demand in terms of housing and also for our economy. Particularly with regard to delivering housing and the supporting infrastructure, there has been a growth in energy demand and the energy intensity required for modern manufacturing and large-scale servers. Delivering electricity infrastructure is absolutely key for this Government to ensure houses are delivered and also for our wider economy. In response to increased demand, ESB Networks and EirGrid have prepared business plans that propose significantly increased investment in the electricity grid for the period 2026 to 2030. Under the accelerating renewable electricity task force, the Department established in 2024 the future grid working group.”
“I look forward to the conclusion of the review, which will provide a clear framework for investment in the electricity grid for the next five-year period. In addition, the new housing activation office in my Department will engage with and align key stakeholders, including those responsible for the electricity grid, to ensure barriers to housing development are addressed in a co-ordinated way.”
“The Government is investing record levels of capital funding in critical infrastructure and will continue to do so under the national development plan for the period 2025 to 2035, to be finalised by July of this year. Developers are guaranteed a connection by ESB Networks. It is worth noting that, over the past four years, ESB Networks has connected over 147,000 homes and businesses to the distribution network. For future connections, ESB Networks is advising developers to give as much notice of their requirements as possible. In response to increased demand, the operators have prepared business plans that propose significantly increased investment in the electricity grid for the period 2026 to 2030 for consideration by the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities under its sixth price review.”
“I thank Deputy Murphy for raising this important question on whether housing delivery is at risk because of challenges regarding the electricity grid. I am committed to building more homes in Ireland and to ensuring the housing needs of our society and economy are met. The Government’s revised housing targets, aiming for over 300,000 new homes by 2030, set a pathway to deliver on this objective. While scaling up capacity to deliver 300,000 new homes by 2030 will be an enormous challenge, this can be facilitated, inter alia , through appropriate Government support to increase the critical infrastructural capacity needed to enable housing delivery in the coming years.”
“Again, I thank the Deputy. I assure him I am over the detail in my Department. I think that some of the organisations presume that because they have an application in, they are entitled to funding or are automatically going to get funding. We are already providing record capital funding for this year, of almost €6.8 billion. There will be more spent. We encourage applications but the fact that an application has been submitted and has not been funded does not mean there is a delay because there is not an automatic entitlement to have a project funded. I will continue to look over any applications that are being submitted. We will continue to fund additional projects during this year but we are certainly not delaying the approval of projects.”
“I am happy to engage with the Deputy if he wants to give me the information on any specific case he suggests has been delayed. There may be some confusion among some bodies who put in queries or applications, or whatever the case may be, in that they believe that because they have not got approval it somehow means a delay. The funding we have is being approved. We have been providing funding for the necessary projects, be they cost-rental, CALF or local authority projects. We do encourage applications. We always have applications on hand that are going through the process to determine whether they can be approved, but that is different from saying there is a bunch of applications that have been approved but simply have not got the funding that is necessary.”
“The outcome of this review will determine the available capital funding for social and affordable housing out to 2030, and this has been communicated to local authorities and approved housing bodies.”
“Since the beginning of the year, the Department has released funding of over €1.1 billion for the social and affordable housing build programmes to local authorities and approved housing bodies, and payments continue to be issued. It is important to note that developers and AHBs can begin their conversations with local authorities regarding projects significantly ahead of lodging a formal application to my Department. There will always be projects on hand with my Department, either under assessment or the subject of further engagement with local authorities or AHBs. This is perfectly normal. The ongoing NDP review will determine capital budgets for the period 2026 to 2030.”
“I thank the Deputy for his question on departmental approvals for social and affordable housing. The Government is committed to working with all stakeholders to deliver social, affordable and cost-rental homes at scale and to continue accelerating housing supply across all tenures. This is demonstrated by the record level of investment for the delivery of housing in 2025, with overall capital funding now available of almost €6.8 billion. With regard to approvals, the Department continues to both receive and issue approvals and, indeed, make payments to AHBs and local authorities. Only this week, a number of applications for new-build social housing projects were approved and approval letters issued.”
“By securing this level of investment, Government is providing much needed certainty and confidence to citizens and the wider housing market. Recognising the considerable successes of Housing for All and having regard to the work already under way to develop the new national housing plan, we have delivered growing levels of new homes and will continue to do so. In the amendment, the Government makes clear its commitment to scale-up capacity to deliver 300,000 homes by 2030 and to facilitate this through appropriate Government support to increase critical infrastructure capacity, including the electricity and water infrastructure. We will continue to do everything in our power to increase the capacity of critical infrastructure needed to support housing delivery and, in turn, increase housing supply for now and for the generations to come.”
“The Government looks forward to the conclusion of the sixth price review by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities which will provide a clear framework for investment in the electricity grid, and the Government will support the system operators in building capacity and more reliable and decarbonised energy systems. To meet the challenges and the opportunities arising from higher anticipated levels of population and economic growth, the Government is investing record levels of capital funding in critical infrastructure, including in the areas of water and energy, and will continue to do so under the national development plan for the period 2025 to 2036 to be finalised by July of this year. We continue to invest at unprecedented levels to ensure we build a sustainable housing system where, ultimately, supply meets demand.”
“There have been record levels of investment under the national development plan in recent years and the programme for Government has set a clear ambition to build on this strong base. Uisce Éireann has ramped up capital delivery for water services and infrastructure from €300 million in 2014 to roughly €1.3 billion in 2024. For 2025, the Exchequer will provide just over €2.2 billion in funding to Uisce Éireann and the programme for Government also commits to investing additional capital in Uisce Éireann under the revised national development plan to support our new housing targets. In response to an increased demand for energy, the system operators, ESB Networks and EirGrid, have prepared business plans that propose significantly increased investment in the electricity grid for the period 2026 to 2030.”
“This would have significantly delayed the establishment of this critical office. The office will work through collaboration, dedicated funding and with the support of the Government. The matter of powers can be reviewed over time to ensure any powers given to it, as appropriate, will be effective. This is no different from the Sinn Féin proposal, which proposed establishing the office on a non-statutory basis to begin with. The motion calls for increased capacity of critical infrastructure required for the delivery of housing. The Government is committed to delivering on the key objectives for infrastructure to support the delivery of more than 300,000 houses by 2030 and to boost the country's competitiveness.”