Local Authority, Regional Assembly & An Coimisiún Pleanála Staff Training - May 2026
Infrastructure Planning & Delivery to Support New Development Areas

Under the Government’s Housing Plan – ‘Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025-2030‘ a significant step-change in the delivery of new homes is urgently required to deliver 300,000 dwellings by 2030, aligned with the need to plan for the delivery of approximately 50,000 new houses per annum to 2040 as set out in the Revised National Planning Framework.

The delivery of this step-change requires close co-operation between local authorities, housing providers, Government and infrastructure agencies that is also mindful of key considerations in terms of practical aspects of development funding, affordability of housing output and prioritisation of infrastructure delivery. The Government’s housing plan includes significant investment in enabling infrastructure which can support local planning policies and objectives that are robustly based on sound and pragmatic economic and delivery considerations.

To explore and discuss the issues above, the OPR hosted a training webinar on practical and prioritised collaboration across the planning, housing and infrastructure delivery area through expert presentations from:

• Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council (DLRCC) – Liam Walsh, Senior Planner, presented on infrastructure planning and delivery to support new development areas and drive housing delivery.
• Uisce Éireann (UÉ) – Catherine Kelly, Forward Planning Manager and Sam Wallace, Delivery Planning Manager, delivered a joint presentation to update on their investment programme and initiatives and gave UÉ’s perspective on infrastructure planning and delivery.
• The Housing Activation Office (HAO) – Karen Kenny, Senior Adviser, and Padraig Maguire, Programme Manager, delivered a joint presentation to outline the work of the HAO, updated on the Housing Infrastructure Investment Fund (HIIF) and provided their perspective on working with local authorities and other delivery partners to accelerate housing delivery.