Lorcan Sirr: Councils were given €43bn over 8 years, enough to build 110,000 homes. They built 27,000

Councils are the backbone of the vast majority of what happens, or in some cases does not happen, locally. Their work is vitally important for our quality of life from cleaning the roads to running the libraries.Some form of council has existed since medieval times. Known as Local Grand Juries, these were administrative bodies comprising up to 24 exclusively Protestant “leading men” who were usually large landowners. They were charged with building and maintaining jails, roads, courthouses, hospitals, asylums and, latterly, housing. In 1899, they were replaced by elected county councils.Today, Ireland’s 31 councils employ 32,500 full-time equivalent staff to carry out their functions in planning, roads, water, waste, fire, youth, economic development and other services. The National Oversight and Audit Commission (NOAC) keeps track of what they do. Involved in housing since the 1800s, councils today have statutory responsibility for the provision of local authority housing. Four councils directly built fewer than 10 new dwellings last year, with many buying new housing from the market – such purchases totalling 44 per cent of their overall output in 2025 (1,257 dwellings). This is expensive and deals are opaque. READ MOREFrom 2017 to 2025, about €43 billion was allocated to housing in annual budgets. Even accounting for maintenance of existing stock, that is enough to build more than 110,000 council houses. Over the same period, however, the total stock of housing in council ownership increased by just 27,397 new dwellings to 158,772. This sum has also part funded more than 22,000 approved housing body (AHB) houses, but the State doesn’t own them and they could be sold by the AHBs in the future.In 2017, the combined total of the social housing waiting list and households in receipt of the Housing Assistance Payment (so, overall social housing demand) was 118,609. Nine years – and €43 billion – later and this figure is 121,229, and homeless numbers are up more than 200 per cent over the same period. No real inroads are being made into meeting social housing demand. Another €9.4 billion was allocated to housing last week. There are questions to be asked about the effectiveness of housing budget spending, who is receiving it and how much they are getting, and whether it is being used for those who need it most. Increasingly parsimonious Department of Public Expenditure (DPER) officials should ensure budgets are not necessarily cut, but have better outcomes.Just 2.4 per cent of council housing was vacant at the end of 2025, which is good, but one area for improvement is the variation in the time councils take to re-let their vacant houses. [ US-backed social housing landlord returned €15m to investors ahead of saleOpens in new window ]Average reletting of a vacant council house in 2025 took 32 weeks – about four weeks faster than 2024, but 10 weeks slower than 2015. In urban areas, Cork City Council reduced its reletting time by nearly 10 weeks from 2024, to 23 weeks. Despite a social housing waiting list of 2,101 households, Galway City Council had the longest average re-let time of more than 42 weeks, or 10 months. In rural areas, Monaghan and Laois had the fastest re-lets at 11 and 16 weeks, and Kerry and Limerick the slowest at 66 (more than 1 year and three months) and 56 weeks respectively. These latter councils have a combined social housing waiting list of 4,901 households.Councils are required to inspect between 12 and 15 per cent of all new buildings to ensure they meet the minimum required standards. In 2025, that figure averaged 19 per cent. Both Cork City (at 9.5 per cent) and Roscommon (6.5 per cent) failed to meet the minimum last year. Dublin City Council hit 83 per cent of new buildings inspected, but given nearly all new buildings in DCC are apartments, it is much easier to achieve a high percentage as many properties can be inspected in one visit. Councils are also required to inspect private rented accommodation, again to ensure it meets the required minimum standards. The target here is 25 per cent. Nine councils exceeded this target. Mayo had the highest inspection rate of 45 per cent of properties; Carlow inspected just 4.5 per cent of private rented properties. In 11 councils, more than 90 per cent of these inspected dwellings were found to be non-compliant with minimum standards. In Louth, this figure was an astonishing 99.87 per cent. If landlords are fleeing the market, it appears to be the wrong landlords. [ Land Development Agency staff share €2m in bonusesOpens in new window ]One area in which councils are excelling is energy retrofitting, exceeding the target for last year of 2,500 retrofits by 171 units. Dublin City Council did the most, followed by Cork County and Donegal. The administration of the planning system is a big part of what councils do. In 2025, councils issued 36,057 planning application decisions, taking a median time of 54 days and granting almost 90 per cent. Three-quarters of planning appeals to An Coimisiún Pleanála confirmed the council’s original decision. This is all part a healthy part of democracy and shows council planning officials are mostly getting it right.Running this planning system cost €43.20 per capita in 2025. In its recent Homebuilding Horizons Report 2026, housebuilder Glenveagh called for an increase in planning application fees to “fund a properly resourced planning system” that would enable councils to hire more staff and expertise. Planning is increasingly becoming technically and legally complex – the latest Planning Act is more than 900 pages – so additional funding is a good suggestion.The top two house building companies in the country made combined operating profits of more than €312 million building and selling 4,933 new houses and apartments in 2025. It could also be suggested that some or all of the €253 million spent last year alone on the price-inflationary Help to Buy scheme that most recipients do not need, be redirected to improving the planning system. Such money would go a long way towards helping councils employ extra staff and improve their planning processes, systems and overall efficiency.According to the NOAC report, “housing remains a key area of concern”. And it will remain so until the Government budget strategy shifts from spending on housing to investing in housing, including the critical provision of community facilities. Councils will be the main conduit for this, but their patchy performance needs to improve.Lorcan Sirr is senior lecturer in housing at TU Dublin, and author of Housing A Nation: seven generations of land, politics and power, available now.