Dublin City Council briefed on ambitious roadmap for 300,000 new homes
€9 billion in state capital funding in 2026 is being invested toward the Government’s goal of building 300,000 houses by 2030.
This figure comes as part of the ‘Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025 to 2030’ action plan, which was presented to Dublin City Councillors at the latest Housing and Social Inclusion SPC. Assistant Chief Executive Mick Mulhern went through main tenets of the plan’s two pillars of ‘activating supply’ and ‘supporting people.’
This multi-billion euro investment aims to address housing needs across the board and help address the population growth needs of Dublin and the rest of Ireland. Major figures from the report include:
In order to achieve the government’s ambitious plan to build 300,000 homes, they must ensure that the land needed is actually available. This will involve zoning sufficient land in line with projected population increases. It also requires the investment of €9 billion in state capital funding in 2026 to help create the conditions to attract investment for its delivery.
A further €15 billion will be needed to attract investment from the likes of ISS, HBFI, and Croi Conaithe. Other measures include VAT reductions for apartments from 13.5% to 9%, reforming apartment standards, and a new rent framework that includes improved rent controls and security of tenure for tenants.
It’s also vital to adopt modern methods of construction and ensure the MMC sector is up to speed on delivery. There is a target for use of MMC in at least 25% of all new build social and affordable homes.
Additionally further housing can be made available by working to end dereliction and vacancy and having a more proactive approach regarding compulsory purchase orders. The Derelict Sites Register will see changes as it becomes the Derelict Sites Tax via the Department of Finance. Vacant property grants will be retain and reviewed for Buy & Renew, Repair & Lease, Living City Initiative and a review of planning exceptions will take place to bring certain buildings back into use.
The second key pillar of the action plan is to assist people with a focus on ending homelessness and providing housing support for those in need. A sum of €100 million of capital funds will be allocated to help families exit homelessness .
The plan aims to ensure there are sufficient allocations to social homes to reduce long term family homelessness and ensure quality emergency accommodation. There will also be measures to provide tailored accommodation for the elderly, the Traveller community, and people with disabilities.
An average 12,000 social homes should be provided per year, with a total of 72,000 over the lifetime of the plan, as well as another 90,000 affordable homes. Local authorities, approved housing bodies, the Land Development Agency, will be central to building schemes. A review of HAP and the Differential Rent Scheme will also take place.
Dublin City Council representatives are supportive of the government’s plans to ramp up housing development. However, some key issues raised regarding ensuring there’s enough infrastructure to keep up with growing populations, putting measures in place to support private housing for middle and high income earners in Dublin city, and the need to reinstate the Tenants in Situ scheme.
“Social infrastructure is essential, “ Cllr Doona Cooney explained. “We want to be a 15-minute city and we want people living here but it needs to be a liveable city.” While Cllr Cooney stressed the importance of tackling the housing crisis she stressed this has to be done alongside urban regeneration and the creation of “sustainable communities into the future.”
Alan Robinson from the Docklands Business Forum said that so much of the action plan focused on social housing and questioned where private housing fits into all of these plans. He expressed his belief that there are now essential no high and middle-income earners living within Dublin’s canals.
“All the large and medium sized housing that was once for middle and high-income earners are now for microbusinesses. That’s almost universally the case. I wonder if there is a strategic concern for the city if we’re spending so much time talking about social housing and not sufficient time talking about the private housing that 90% of working Dubliners would aspire to live in,” he said.
Cllr Daithi Doolan said he does not share the same confidence as other councillors that the Minister for Housing can deliver on this plan and said “the evidence bears true that the spiralling homelessness crisis is getting worse.” He said he hopes to see this change but that currently there are people living in “dire situations” in overcrowded housing within “Dickensian” council accommodation.
“Behind every statistic is a family deeply traumatized," he said. He called for practical measures to stop people slipping into homelessness and said that while he welcomes new builds they must "regenerate and refurbish the public housing we already have.”
Cllr Doolan was just one of several who highlighted the Tenants in Situ scheme as a project that worked and genuinely helped people, but a lack of funding and support put it on pause and placed families into risk of homelessness. Cllr Pat Dunne said the scheme “shouldn’t have been interfered with” and was one of the few government initiatives that “should have been left alone.”
While Cllr Dunne said the figures from this plan make for “great headlines,” he expressed frustration that “every time there’s a change in personnel in terms of housing we get a new report.” He said, rather than presentations, what he’d like to see is "initiatives on the ground following on from these reports.”
Cllr Dunne criticised the reduction of VAT for apartments, stating “for the life of me I can’t see how that’s going to increase the amount of apartments being built.” He said these measures “don’t address the lack of family accommodation” and called for more focus on three and four-bedroom apartments which are severely lacking the government’s housing plan.
Dublin City Council aims to deliver 1,083 social, cost rental, and affordable homes on council-owned lands in 2026. These figures are set to increase to 2,538 in 2027 and 2,552 in 2028, with 264 private homes planned for that year on council-owned lands.
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