State infrastructure fund to aid delivery of 4,000 homes in Limerick City

Limerick mayor John Moran said the Government funding was a significant vote of confidence in Limerick’s ability to deliver housing and would remove key infrastructure barriers. Picture: Dan Linehan

The Housing Infrastructure Investment Funding (HIIF) will fund the direct delivery of almost 4,000 homes in Limerick — and provide the potential for more than 6,800.

The fund provides targeted funding to support enabling infrastructure such as roads, water services, and utilities needed to unlock housing development.

Limerick City and County Council was granted funding for a number of developments on key sites in the city, including Mungret Housing, the Colbert Quarter, Castletroy Link Road and Toppins Field.

It is one of 82 infrastructure projects across the country will be supported in the first phase of the HIIF programme.

Additionally, the Land Development Agency has been awarded funding, at an indicative cost band between €10m and €20m, to directly unlock lands for 600 residential units and indirectly unlock a further 1,400 residential units at Colbert Quarter and St Joseph’s.

Limerick mayor John Moran said the Government funding was a significant vote of confidence in Limerick’s ability to deliver housing and would remove key infrastructure barriers.

This comes as Limerick Chamber had warned the city is nearly 6,000 homes behind housing delivery, as “Limerick Development Plan proposals fall drastically short of what Limerick needs”.

While Limerick City and County Council’s Proposed Variation No 3 to the Limerick Development Plan 2022–2028 suggests a capacity for 17,000 homes, the chamber said only 7,000 were “realistically deliverable”.

The chamber recently backed An Taisce Limerick’s call for greater clarity on stalled city centre residential development.

In 2025, housing completions in Limerick fell by a third, from 740 in 2024 to 493 in 2025, and first-quarter completions in 2026 dropped by a further 19% year-on-year — representing the third consecutive year of first-quarter decline and a 31% fall from the first quarter of 2023.

Limerick Chamber chief executive Donnacha Hurley said: “Housing is the single biggest challenge facing our member businesses. Without homes, we cannot attract or retain talent, and without talent, we cannot grow.

“Under Limerick’s current rate of delivery, it would take 20 years to deliver the capacity stated under this plan. Even using the more realistic deliverable figure of 7,000 homes would take eight years to deliver this level of output. There is a clear signal that national policy is not yielding the results required."