Enabling housing delivery

Garret Doocey, Deputy Secretary General with responsibility for housing activation, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, outlines what the Housing Activation Office (HAO) is doing to enable the infrastructure necessary for housing delivery.

Housing delivery at pace and at scale around the State is one of this government’s absolute priorities. Delivering the homes Ireland needs depends on more than planning permissions, land availability, and construction activity.

Building homes requires the timely and quality delivery of all the enabling infrastructure that makes housing development possible: transport, water services, and electricity networks.

The HAO was established by government in April 2025 to address these challenges, in particular in terms of infrastructure and multi-agency co-ordination. Minister for Housing James Browne TD has been clear that the purpose of the office is not just to solve problems on the ground, but to ensure those problems are addressed at a systems level so homes are delivered as quickly as possible across the State.

Now operational for 18 months, the HAO is coordinating and accelerating the delivery of critical infrastructure required to unlock housing on sites across the State and support the Government’s target of delivering 300,000 homes by 2030.

Since taking up the role of Deputy Secretary General with responsibility for Housing Activation in March 2026, my focus has been on strengthening collaboration across government, infrastructure providers, local authorities, and industry to ensure that infrastructure constraints do not become a barrier to housing delivery.

Bringing expertise into one room

A defining feature of the HAO is its cross-agency model. The team brings together expertise from planning, housing, and project delivery, alongside secondees from key delivery organisations including Uisce Éireann, ESB Networks, the National Transport Authority, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, and local government.

Housing delivery is complex and no single organisation can resolve every challenge in isolation. By bringing together expertise and decision-makers from across the sector, we can improve coordination, accelerate problem-solving, and align infrastructure investment with housing need.

Since becoming operational, the HAO has engaged extensively with all 31 local authorities, the Land Development Agency (LDA), infrastructure providers, and private industry stakeholders. This engagement has helped identify sites with significant housing potential and the infrastructure constraints affecting their development.

The office is focused on practical delivery. We are actively identifying barriers, prioritising interventions, and ensuring that investment is directed to the projects that can unlock housing most effectively. While site specific challenges remain important, we are increasingly taking a strategic view of infrastructure requirements across the State to support housing growth at scale.

Dialogue

An important element of this work has been the establishment of two key engagement structures.

In November 2025, Minister Browne convened the Housing Activation Delivery Group, bringing together senior leaders from government departments and infrastructure agencies to strengthen coordination and support the work of the HAO. At the same time, he established the Housing Activation Industry Group to ensure close engagement with industry representative bodies and support momentum across infrastructure and housing delivery.

Both groups continue to meet on a quarterly basis and most recently met on 1 July 2026. They have proven valuable forums for identifying challenges, sharing insights, and supporting a coordinated approach to delivery. We all have the same goal, but it is the job of the HAO to help get unnecessary hurdles out of the way, and troubleshoot where an issue impacting one site may be seen elsewhere, and identify what we can do systemically to address the problem, so it does not arise in the future.

Housing Infrastructure Investment Fund

A major milestone for the HAO was the launch of the €1 billion Housing Infrastructure Investment Fund (HIIF) in January 2026. Managed by the HAO, the fund represents a significant commitment to investing directly in the infrastructure needed to unlock and activate lands identified for housing development.

By supporting investment in transport, water, electricity, and other enabling infrastructure, the fund will ensure that land is properly serviced and ready to deliver homes. Importantly, it complements rather than replaces existing investment programmes across government.

The response to the first call for applications highlighted both the scale of demand and the opportunities available to unlock housing supply. Call one attracted 138 applications from 30 local authorities and the LDA.

Following a detailed assessment process, 82 projects have been approved for inclusion in the HIIF programme. These projects span a range of infrastructure categories, including roads, water services, energy infrastructure, and public parks. Collectively, they have the potential to unlock land capable of supporting approximately 200,000 homes, either directly or indirectly.

The HAO team is working directly with local authorities and the LDA to progress these projects through an active programme management approach. Funding will be allocated annually based on delivery progress, ensuring accountability, oversight, and a continued focus on outcomes.

Water and the grid

Collaboration with infrastructure providers remains central to this work. Uisce Éireann and ESB Networks have established dedicated teams to work alongside the HAO, helping to ensure that complementary investment in water and energy infrastructure is aligned with the delivery of HIIF funded projects. This enhanced collaboration is helping to address local activation challenges while also ensuring that broader network investment supports housing priorities.

While the publication of the projects approved under call one marks an important milestone, it is only the beginning. The HAO will continue to develop the HIIF and broaden its scope over time to include a wider range of public and private sector delivery partners. Our objective is to create a sustainable pipeline of infrastructure investment that systematically addresses barriers to housing delivery.

Momentum is growing

Alongside these initiatives, there are encouraging signs across the wider housing system. Planning permissions remain strong, commencements have increased, and the number of homes under construction has risen significantly. Our role is to ensure that infrastructure constraints do not impede this momentum.

As the office enters its next phase, the focus is broadening beyond local activation and site specific interventions and into a more strategic phase. This includes identifying larger and more transformative infrastructure investments required to support housing delivery at scale.

To support this ambition, a ‘new urban communities’ taskforce will be established later this year to examine strategic landbanks in and around the State’s five cities and identify locations where large-scale new communities can be delivered. Its work will help government prioritise infrastructure investment in areas capable of supporting significant housing growth.

The HAO has made progress in a relatively short period. Strong partnerships have been established, major infrastructure projects are progressing, and a significant new investment fund is supporting housing-enabling infrastructure across the State.

As we move into this next phase, the HAO will no doubt play a significant role in ensuring that infrastructure supports the delivery of the homes that Ireland needs.