Housing spend to deliver 11,820 social homes

In total, the Department of Housing will have €2.58 billion to spend on capital projects, with the Budget saying that this will go towards "supporting the needs of 31,000 households".

A €4bn housing budget will be used to deliver 11,820 social homes, 4,000 affordable purchase and cost rental homes, and a €50 million fund to revitalise town and city centres.

In total, the Department of Housing will have €2.58 billion to spend on capital projects, with the Budget saying that this will go towards "supporting the needs of 31,000 households".

The Government commits to:

• 11,820 new social homes, 9,200 of which are new builds with 2,620 through leasing schemes 
• Funding to allow an additional 14,800 new households access the HAP and RAS schemes, bringing the bill for these schemes to €585m
• Assist 1,750 first-time buyers purchase homes under the €44m First Home shared equity scheme 
• €75m for 750 Cost Rental homes. 700 of these will be supplied by Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) with 50 coming from local authorities 
• A further €55m will be put towards the delivery of 500 affordable purchase homes 

The rest of the Housing capital plan sees €18m for Traveller accommodation, €65m for 11,000 adaptation grants, €50m for regeneration of disadvantaged communities and €20m for pyrite remediation, though there was no financial commitment to a Mica scheme just yet. 

€85 million will be used to retrofit 2,400 social homes and €30 million will go towards remediating 1,500 homes. 

The €50 million Croí Conaithe fund will be used to "stimulate non activated planning permissions" in cities and to service sites close to regional and rural town centres. 

A total of €194 million will be given to tackle homelessness.

The Housing and Local Government budget also commits €12.5m to the Cork Event Centre and €148m for Irish Water projects in Athlone and Ringsend.

The sizeable budget includes a carryover of €246m from 2021 and €92 in Local Property Tax.