Land Development Agency
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-23
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Neale Richmond (FG), Dublin Rathdown

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue and giving me the opportunity to reply on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Browne, who unfortunately is not here today.
Affordability and the chance to own a home is at the heart of the Government’s housing policy, as embodied in the new housing plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities. The Government is continuing to invest an unprecedented level of funding to support housing delivery, which will underpin the new starter homes programme, delivering an average of 15,000 starter home supports annually to 2030.
In terms of starter home delivery, over 22,000 starter home supports have been delivered since the launch of the previous housing plan, Housing for All, including nearly 1,000 in Dublin City. Dublin City Council has established a significant pipeline of starter home delivery and continues to work proactively with all delivery partners to ensure the successful delivery of these homes.
Dublin City Council currently has an affordable housing delivery programme that includes a total of 789 new starter homes, which will be available for affordable purchase by eligible, approved housing candidates by 2028. These homes will be located at Ballymun, Montpelier, Oscar Traynor Road and Cherry Orchard. Twelve homes have been delivered at Ballymun to date, with the schemes at Montpelier and Oscar Traynor Road at an advanced stage. We will see significant delivery during the year.
The delivery programme continues to be expanded and accelerated. Two additional schemes with the potential to deliver a further 240 affordable homes are under assessment. The first home scheme, which supports first-time buyers in purchasing new houses and apartments in the private market through the use of an equity share model, is also available to support eligible new home purchasers. It has been availed of by 93 affordable home buyers in Dublin city up to the fourth quarter of 2025, the latest period for which statistics have been published.
The Department of housing is funding 12.5 dedicated administrative and technical staffing posts in Dublin City Council to support the resourcing and development of these starter homes schemes. In addition to this, we look at cost-rental delivery, the croí cónaithe scheme and, crucially, the vacant property refurbishment grant and other available opportunities.
In conclusion, in order to further drive the required delivery of 90,000 starter homes under Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025-2030, local authorities including Dublin City Council will shortly commence the preparation of new housing delivery action plans for review by the Department, setting out how the starter home programme will be implemented within their area. These plans, replacing those previously drawn up under Housing for All, will be informed by affordable housing need within the local authority area and will involve collaboration with the delivery partners, including the Land Development Agency, approved housing bodies and the wider development sector, as applicable. The plans will be published on each local authority's website following engagement with the relevant Department.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-23/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-23