Almost 9,000 homes given planning permission last year not yet built in Fingal
Close to 9,000 homes that were given full planning permission in Fingal were not built over the last year.
Responding to a question from a councillor on inactive sites, Róisín Burke, Director of Planning and Development for Fingal County Council (FCC), replied that 8933 homes across 56 sites have remained inactive in 2025.
“There were a total of 56 inactive sites in 2025 alone, and in those almost 9000 homes that have never been built on sites where full planning permission has been given,” said Labour councillor for Castleknock John Walsh to the Irish Independent.
“These are sites where a shovel has not been put in the ground and no homes have been commenced. This is in the middle of a housing crisis where young people are crying out for homes, where homelessness is at record levels.
“This is a scandal hiding in plain sight that big builders and developers are sitting on land and failing to develop it. There’s a lot of propaganda about how difficult it is to build homes and that there’s a lack of zoned land – yet we now see in Fingal alone, thousands of homes that have never been built.”
On February 9, Cllr Walsh asked for the council for the total number of inactive sites where full planning permission has been given but no homes have been built between 2022 and 2025.
In 2022, the council had 7626 inactive sites, 13,664 in 2023 and 8733 in 2024.
Some councillors have been campaigning for the “use it or lose it clause” to ensure homes are built once planning permission is secured.
“I have been campaign for a use it or lose it clause – planning permission should be a privilege, not a right. There’s a lot of rhetoric around the need to zone more land for housing and there’s pressure on the councils to rezone more land for housing,” said Cllr Walsh.
“This is where we see the the most striking failure of the government’s housing policy – we have totally ignored the problem of inactive sites and failed to take any action or force the building of homes where a shovel has been put in the ground and no progress has been made.”
The councillor added that it would be important to keep developers and builders working on such properties in check.
“This exposes propaganda from big builders that they are tied up by the planning system and there’s not enough zoned land. Both of those claims are undermined when you look at the extraordinary number of sites,” he said.
"There have been instances where within a short time of these units being given planning permission, the sites have been sold to a new owner, it can only be regarded as an attempt to inflate the price of the land.
“I acknowledge there are sometimes infrastructural blockages to building homes and in fairness, not all developers are doing this – but the numbers are striking. It testifies to an extraordinary failure on the part of the private sector in terms of building homes.”
Fingal County Council has been contacted for comment.