Minister defends Cork new-build social housing figures

Just three new-build social homes were delivered in Cork city during the first three months of this year, data has shown.

The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage’s social housing delivery statistics for Q1 2026, published yesterday, show that nationally the number of new-build social homes has more than doubled from 351 in the first quarter of 2025 to 714 in the same period this year.

However, just 20 of those — less than 3% of the national total— are in Cork.

Some 17 are by the county council and three by its city counterpart.

The city council has achieved just 0.4% of its target for the year, while the county council has achieved 2.8%.

Cork city’s three homes were all delivered as Part Five new builds, meaning they were built by a private developer and handed over to the local authority.

This Part Five system was also responsible for eight of Cork county’s new builds.

Approved housing bodies 

Five of these builds were delivered by approved housing bodies and four by the local authority itself.

Cork County Council also acquired three homes, and leased seven, while Cork City Council had no acquisitions but 12 leases.

In the first three months of this year, there were 129 homes delivered in Fingal and 90 in Dublin city, as well as 79 in Meath and 76 in Kerry.

Cork city performed poorer than 22 local authorities and only better than Carlow, Donegal, Leitrim, Galway county, and Monaghan, where no homes were delivered — while just one was delivered in Sligo.

Housing minister James Browne said: “I know people are depending on us to get this right and get social and publicly delivered homes built in communities right across the country.

“But we’re going in the right direction and that matters.

“The full picture regarding delivery will also be much clearer towards the end of the year as local authority delivery is typically slowest in the first three months — with a significant part of delivery actually occurring in the second half of the year.”

In the entirety of last year, there were 472 new-build social homes in Cork city and 400 in Cork county; no homes were built in either local authority in the first three months of the year.

The local authorities built 254 and 194 homes respectively, while 152 and 98 homes were built by approved housing bodies, and 66 and 108 through part five schemes.

Previous government data shows that between 2022 and 2025, neither local authority has ever met half of its annual target for homes built by the local authorities themselves.

Some 721 homes were delivered by Cork City Council in the four year period, 33% of its 2,193 target, as well as 234 by Cork County Council, just 9% of its 2,501 target.