The State missed its target for delivery of social homes in 2024 by almost 20 per cent, according to a new report published by the Department of Housing.

The Social Construction Status Report for the final quarter of last year confirms that a total of 10,596 social homes were delivered last year, 2,334 short of the target of 12,930 social homes.

Responding to the figures, Minister for Housing James Browne acknowledged the completions fell short of the targets and implicitly pointed to the performance of local authorities.

He said he will publish quarterly performance reports that will “clearly outline” how each local authority is delivering on individual targets for new-build social housing.

There were shortfalls in two of the three categories of social housing. New builds totalled 7,871 units, well short of the target of 9,300. It was also less than the 8,110 social homes built in the previous year, 2023.

Meanwhile, only 1,223 social homes were delivered through leasing, against a target of 2,130. The only category that met its target was acquisition at 1,501 (the target was 1,500). Notwithstanding that, the figure was also down on the 1,800 acquisitions in 2023.

On affordable housing, Mr Browne said that a record 7,126 affordable homes had been delivered in 2024, well ahead of a target of 6,400 units. Affordable homes are delivered through a combination of means including purchases, cost rentals and the First Home scheme whereby the State takes an equity stake in the dwelling. However, Sinn Féin has queried the figures for the latter, saying it includes approvals (not yet completed) as well as actual deliveries.

Mr Browne defended the performance of his department in both areas against the background of an overall downturn in home construction last year. “The downturn in private sector building output raised concerns that there would be a similar hit to social housing delivery. It appears from these figures that, while there certainly has been an impact, it has not been as pronounced as may have been feared,” he said.

He added, however, that an accelerated delivery programme was under way and said he would meet the chief executives of all 31 local authorities as part of a drive to “renewed urgency” in delivery.

“Reaching our overall annual targets is dependent on each local authority meeting their target and we cannot afford for any individual local authority to fall behind,” he said.

Eoin Ó Broin, Sinn Féin’s social housing spokesman, said the report was a “very bad result” as the Government had significantly missed not only its social homes target, but also its affordable purchase and affordable rental targets by about 36 per cent.

He said there was a shortfall of 3,000 on the overall public sector target of 23,300.

“There’s a shortfall of new build socials and new build affordable rentals and affordable purchases. So they’ve badly missed those sets of targets.

“On social housing, they have built less houses than the year before. On affordable homes builds, it’s still 36 per cent shy of the target. It’s a very, very bad result.

“The new-build target for 2024 was 4,400 for local authorities and the Land Development Agency. They delivered just over 2,500,” he said.

Social Democrats housing spokesman Rory Hearne said the figures showed that the Government had failed to meet its targets, misled the public on promises and had failed to take emergency actions on a “social disaster”. He also said the affordable home delivery record was “pathetic”.

“The figures for direct local authority-delivered affordable housing are shocking. Fifteen councils have no delivery of affordable purchase, including Galway City,” he said.

Labour’s housing spokesman Conor Sheehan said the figures were “shocking but not surprising”.

“We know the delivery of social housing is far too slow and that the Government needs to implement the recommendations of the Housing Commission report to expand social and affordable housing so it makes up 20 per cent of all housing stock.”