Urgent Need to Accelerate Housing Delivery

Built to Innovate – Enterprise Ireland’s new mandate to work with domestic residential construction companies.

21 April 2025

Est. Reading: 2 minutes

On April 9, 2025, Waterford City and County Council hosted a pivotal Housing Conference at the Granville Hotel, highlighting the urgent need to accelerate housing delivery across both public and private sectors. The event brought together key stakeholders from local government, industry, and academia to address the challenges and opportunities in meeting Waterford's growing housing demands.

Chief Executive Sean McKeown emphasized Waterford's rapid growth, noting that the city and county are expanding faster than the national average. He stated, "To sustain this momentum, we need to accelerate the momentum in housing delivery across all tenures, especially in the private sector." McKeown also reaffirmed the Council's commitment to delivering 1,130 social homes by 2026, with over 300 units completed last year and an additional 350 units slated for completion this year.

The conference featured insights from notable figures, including Ivan Grimes, Director of Services for Planning at Waterford City and County Council; Keith Williams, Capital Projects Manager at South East Technological University (SETU); Brian McGee, Regional Enterprise Development Manager at IDA; James Mernin, Site Lead at Red Hat; Mark Hennessy, VP Operations at Bausch+Lomb; and Noel Frisby, Director at Frisby Construction. Discussions centered on the necessity for cross-sector collaboration to deliver housing that supports both social development and economic growth.

Ivan Grimes highlighted the Council's initiatives to tackle vacancy and dereliction, stating, "Delivery of a range of initiatives such as the Repair and Leasing Scheme (RLS) and the Affordable Purchase Scheme has long-term benefits." He emphasized that these efforts not only provide new homes but also act as catalysts for the private sector to offer larger homes as families grow and seek to upsize.

The conference underscored the critical need for activating existing development sites and initiating new projects to ensure that Waterford's housing supply meets the needs of its people, businesses, and economy. As the region continues to attract significant public and private investment, the collaborative efforts discussed at the conference aim to address housing shortages and support sustainable growth.