Minister O’Brien doubles number of specialist staff to boost delivery of more affordable homes

Minister O’Brien doubles number of specialist staff to boost delivery of more affordable homes

• 71 additional posts announced to facilitate increased delivery of affordable homes
• over 4,000 affordable homes delivered in 2023, a 128% increase on 2022
• almost €11m in the past three weeks alone for delivery of 121 affordable purchase and cost rental homes, includes first affordable purchase homes in Gaeltacht

 
Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien has today approved 71 new specialist and administrative posts to help ramp up the delivery of affordable housing throughout the country.
The Minister’s approval of these additional professional expert roles alongside administrative delivery teams increases the total complement to just over 140 staff in local authorities dedicated to delivering affordable housing. The new staff will ensure that our local authorities have increased levels of necessary in-house expertise in areas such as design, procurement, surveying, engineering and administration.
Minister O’Brien said;
“Last year, we delivered over 4,000 affordable homes, a 128% increase on 2022. I am determined to deliver much more to ensure affordable purchase and cost rental homes are built at scale in the period 2022-2030.”
“To achieve this, local authorities need staff with the right skillsets across a range of disciplines. These new posts will be solely dedicated to affordable housing delivery and will bring the required technical and specialist expertise to ensure the current robust pipeline of affordable homes is further increased.”
“My Department has been working with the Housing Delivery Coordination Office (HDCO) and the County and City Management Association (CCMA) to identify the additional staffing resources required to deliver more affordable homes and today’s sanctioning of additional resources is informed by their views. With these new positions, local authorities now possess increased capacity to meet our ambitious targets for affordable housing delivery.”
Affordable housing includes Affordable Purchase and Cost Rental Homes.
Affordable Purchase Homes: Local authorities make newly built homes available at a reduced price for first-time and other eligible buyers. The local authority takes a percentage stake in your home that covers the reduction in price.
Cost Rental Homes: Cost Rental provides you with a secure tenancy at a rent which is below the market rent in the local area. It is a long-term secure rental option. This means if you are paying your rent and meeting your other tenant obligations, you may continue to rent your home for as long as you want.
In the last three weeks alone, almost €11m has been provided for the delivery of 121affordable purchase and affordable cost rental homes:

• €4.37m towards the delivery of 32 affordable purchase and 20 Cost Rental homes in Cork
• €3m in funding to deliver 14 new affordable homes in the Galway Gaeltacht (first affordable purchase homes in Gaeltacht)
• €1.87m to assist with the development of 25 affordable purchase homes in Waterford
• €450,000 towards the delivery of 9 affordable purchase homes in Limerick
• €1.2m towards the delivery of 21 affordable purchase homes in Clare

 
Commenting on this latest round of approvals Minister O’Brien said,
“I am particularly pleased to have given approval for the first affordable purchase scheme in a Gaeltacht area. I appreciate that the number is small but what this Government is about is scaling up our delivery. In 2023 we managed to double the delivery of affordable homes when compared to 2022 and it’s my firm intention that we continue this trend,” he concluded.