Urban Development
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-04
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John Cummins (FG), Waterford

What I said in my response was that the current programme runs until 2028 and they are the projects that the council have put forward for the regeneration, which encompasses 121 units that have been completed, 165 units that are on site, and 127 units that are in pre-construction phase. We in the Department will always assess any application that comes in from local authorities, be they turnkey housing units, regeneration projects like this or Part 8 plans that the councils put forward. We are open to applications from every local authority in this State to come forward with social and affordable schemes, but it is the local authorities' responsibility to bringing forward those schemes.
We now have a single-stage approval process in place with standardised designs where local authorities will have responsibility for putting forward the projects to the Department. This is for any project that is under €200 million. These will go through a single-stage approval process within the Department. This is to try to avoid the situation that has happened heretofore where councils blamed the Department and the Department blamed the councils. Under these new rules, there will be no hiding for councils that are not putting forward projects. They will not be able to say a project is at stage 2 or 3 within the Department. There will be none of that. We want the local authorities, Cork City Council and Cork County Council included, to bring forward schemes to us. The Deputy is right. He represents that area in the same way I represent working class areas in Waterford that have gone through regeneration and still have to go through regeneration. We are both passionate about regeneration programmes but I also acknowledge that it is the responsibility in my area for Waterford City and County Council to bring forward those schemes that we, as a Department, can fund from Dublin.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-04/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:35+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-04