'Why is the projection so low?'- Déise housing targets
Re-construction of 4 Social Housing Residential Units in The Glen.
Questions over housing targets were raised at the February meeting of the Plenary Council of Waterford City and County Council. At the meeting in Dungarvan Civic Offices, the Department of Planning presented report on housing in the Déise.
The report focused on the delivery projections and targets under the nationwide 'Housing for All' programme. The report also touched on the regeneration of vacant and derelict sites in Waterford.
Director of Services for Housing, Helena Dennehy outlined the targets for housing within the report.
She said: "Targets are housing needs assessments; it's based on numbers that would have been available to us at the time, the type and requirement of the housing that would have been needed. It was also linked in the Housing for All programme. So it was really a mixture of both."
Housing for All is the Government's programme to provide 33,000 homes every year until 2030.
In the report, it appears that Waterford is exceeding expectations for the delivery of houses under the Government's programme. The projected figure for Affordable housing in Waterford, as of January 7, 2025, was 236, an increase of 160 homes over the target of 76. The total target for Social housing in Waterford is 1,325, yet the projected figure stands at 1,435.
Councillor Joeanne Bailey (Sinn Féin) drew attention to yearly delivery targets for the Housing for All 2022-2026 period. According to the report, the Local Authority is projected to deliver 25 units in 2025, which is 21 units over the initial target of four.
Cllr Bailey said: "For 2025 and 2026, the targets are four but projected delivery could be twenty-five in 2025, and ten in 2026. Why is the projection so low if we know that the delivery could be more?"
She went on to say: "Are we setting it so low that it looks like we're over-performing on Housing for All? Why are the projections so low there?"
Ms Dennehy later responded to the query: "[Cllr Bailey] mentioned that four was the target for 2026, so four is the target that is set by the Department under 'Housing for All'. I will propose [that] we will be delivering ten."
According to the report, Waterford City and County Council has achieved 'the third-highest delivery of Local Authority affordable housing units in Ireland, ranking just behind Fingal and Cork City delivering 15 per cent of the national delivery.'
