Wexford County Council to increase housing delivery by 550 per year as it seeks to build 16,000 homes by 2034

By Simon Bourke, Wexford People

Wexford County Council (WCC) is to up its housing delivery over the next eight years as it seeks to meet the increasing demand for new homes in the county. Despite exceeding the previous targets issued by central government, the council will now increase its annual output by 550 as it seeks to build a total of 16,220 units between 2022-2034.

These revised targets will see WCC construct an estimated 1,622 homes per year up to 2034 in line with projected increases in population across the county. And while much of the new developments in the county in recent years have been in Wexford town and Gorey, the new plans will see the council turn its attention to New Ross and Enniscorthy as a matter of priority before then focusing on Rosslare Harbour and Bunclody.

At the November meeting of WCC, director of planning Liz Hore outlined the council’s ambitious plans for the next decade or so. However, before she looked to the future, she updated councillors on the work done since the implementation of the County Development Plan in 2022.

To date, as part of that plan, there have been 2,202 new homes completed in Co Wexford, representing 34.2 pc of its 6,429 target. Furthermore, Wexford is the only county in the Southern Region Assembly (which includes Cork, Kerry, Waterford, Kilkenny, Carlow, Limerick, Clare, and Tipperary) which has surpassed its housing targets during the time period of 2022-24.

In those counties, there were 12 schemes consisting of 100 or more houses built in 2024 – three of which were in Co Wexford.

While the figures for the future promise further success, delivering those houses and addressing the shortfall will require a significant body of work for WCC. However, Ms Hore said this process had already begun and a detailed plan of action would guide it throughout.

This plan of action will see the council examine the development capacity of existing lands which are zoned for residential use and provide information on the serviced and planning status of those lands for Minister of Housing, James Browne.

The immediate focus will be on Enniscorthy and New Ross where land surveys, and infrastructure, environmental and flood risk assessments will be carried out in the coming weeks. This will lead to a workshop with members of the municipal districts from both New Ross and Enniscorthy next month.

Thereafter the existing County Development Plan will be updated to reflect the council’s new targets for housing delivery.

Responding to a query from Councillor Barbara Anne Murphy, Ms Hore said the next step would be to put the new plans out to public consultation with a view to fully approving them in March of next year.

To date, WCC, and many other councils across the country, have been stymied in their ambitions to build houses in rural areas due to the lack of wastewater treatment systems available. And, with Uisce Éireann (UÉ) effectively ruling out any works outside of Gorey and Wexford town, it appeared as if those who wished to live outside the county’s towns were destined to spend years on waiting lists.

But, in the wake of an announcement from Minister Browne which allows builders to develop wastewater treatment facilities for smaller housing developments, there was renewed hope among Wexford’s rural councillors. Following queries from Cllrs Garry Laffan and John Fleming, director of services Eamonn Hore explained how the new requirements would work.

“We have met with representatives from UÉ to discuss the situation regarding developer-led infrastructure, and there’s a guidance document being published in February of next year” he said. “Once the developer builds the treatment system it will have to be operating correctly for two years before UÉ will take it over. So, there is some scope there for developers but any system will have to meet environmental regulations.”

Cllr Paddy Kavanagh sounded a note of caution regarding this initiative.

"Who pays to install the new treatment systems? The developer?” he asked. “If that is the case the cost will be passed on to the person buying the house. And I can guarantee you that the building of a new treatment plant will be far more expensive than connecting to an existing system. The house will end up costing a lot more than it normally would.”

Cllr Darragh McDonald meanwhile, was looking far into the future, perhaps even further than those who had devised these plans.

“My concern is what happens when these people move into their houses,” he said. “It’s not directly the responsibility of the council but I’m curious as to whether there’s been any discussions with the Department of Education about additional school places.

"And what about increased ambulance cover? We need to start lobbying for these things now, we don’t want to be in the position in five years time where people can’t get a GP in their area – which is already happening in some parts of Gorey.”

Chief executive Eddie Taaffe responded, advising Cllr McDonald that the “Department of Education will feed into the process” and that WCC has a “sophisticated planning section which looks at zoning and population projection”

Lastly, Cllr Aoife Rose O’Brien asked for an update regarding those who weren’t necessarily interested in social or affordable homes and wanted to build their own house.

“Do we have a ready to build (RTB) scheme in the county?” she asked. “There’s a cohort of people out there who would love to build but are unable to due to rising costs. If we had RTB it would be a huge help and would incentivise people to build.”

Mr Taaffe informed the Sinn Fein councillor that a pilot project allowing prospective parties to build on serviced land was in the pipeline and would be launched next year.