Micheál Martin: Record home completions and €28bn housing push

I propose to take questions one to six together. The Cabinet Committee on Housing last met on Monday, the 14th of September. The Committee will meet next on Thursday, the 22nd of October. The Committee works to ensure a cross-Government approach to the implementation of our commitments regarding housing policy. Housing supply has increased significantly over the past number of years, with recent home completions data showing almost 17,000 new homes built in the first half of 2026. This is a rise of 11% on the same period in 2025, and the highest number of half-year completions since the series began 15 years ago. We're also seeing the highest number of people buying their first home in well over a decade, with almost 12,600 first-time buyer mortgages drawn down in the first half of this year. Many of these households were supported by Government-backed measures such as the First Home Scheme and Help to Buy Schemes. Clearly, the measures we have implemented, backed by unprecedented state investment, are working. The Housing Activation Office has now established, a core team of civil servants and experts, seconded from Aisge Airdin, from the ESB Networks, the National Transport Authority, Transport Infrastructure Ireland and local government sector, have been brought together to progress the work of the office. The office is headed by a Deputy Secretary General for Housing Activation. The Housing Activation Office actively engages with key stakeholders, including all of the 31 local authorities, utility and infrastructure providers, industry and others, to ensure that barriers to the delivery of public infrastructure projects required to enable housing development are addressed in a coordinated way. Government has made available the highest ever commitment of exchequer funding for housing, €28 billion up to 2030, along with additional funding through state vehicles including the Land Development Agency, the Housing Finance Agency, Home Building Finance Ireland, the First Home Scheme and the Irish Strategic Investment Fund. Under the National Housing Plan, the role and remit of the Land Development Agency has been expanded. This includes a wider geographical remit and a focus on starter homes, mixed tenure of more social and private housing delivery and infrastructure-led delivery. Through various delivery channels, the LDA has delivered almost 3,000 homes and is working on a pipeline of a further 25,000 homes on over 40 sites, with projects at every stage from design through to construction. All 31 local authorities across the country have been tasked with ensuring that more than enough land is zoned to meet the needs of our citizens. The process is well underway, with the majority of local authorities having either fully or partially concluded the process. To ensure that this land is activated for housing quickly, we are coordinating wider infrastructure investment through the Housing Activation Office again, which is now managing a multi-annual £1 billion housing investment fund. That's the largest ever investment in housing-enabling infrastructure. Over 80 infrastructure projects have been funded under the programme to directly enable the delivery of 86,000 new homes and provide the potential for a further 113,000 homes. Our commitment to large-scale projects, such as Metrolink, has housing delivery as a core priority. Earlier today, we approved the next phase of work on this generational project, with main tendering due to kick-off shortly. This project will enable tens of thousands of extra homes along its route. For more information visit www.fema.gov