Ennis Chamber responds to Government’s ‘Action Plan on Housing Supply and Targeting Homelessness’
Ennis Chamber responds to the publication (November 13, 2025) of the Government’s ‘Action Plan on Housing Supply and Targeting Homelessness, 2025-2030’.
Ennis Chamber admires the government’s ambition to deliver 300,000 new homes by 2030, but stresses that the immediate focus must be on overcoming infrastructural deficits to ensure timely implementation of the Action Plan.
Poor infrastructure delivery has proved a major obstacle to economic growth. As such, Ennis Chamber welcomes the government’s focus on timely funding and delivery of essential water, electricity and transport infrastructure to support its ambitious housing plan.
Ennis Chamber President Diarmuid McMahon commented, “While this new Plan is a move in the right direction and the measures announced could improve availability and affordability over time, the true test of success will be the government’s ability to deliver at scale.”
He continued, “We have first-hand experience of infrastructural challenges here in Ennis and indeed across County Clare. In Ennis we need investment in wastewater treatment, if we are to meet projected population targets. We also need to ensure that serviced and developable lands are prioritised for future zoning. By which we mean, to have adequate infrastructure capacity, including wastewater, energy and transport infrastructure in place, to support new developments.”
Ennis Chamber welcomes the Government’s stated focus on issues pertaining to the planning process. An overhaul of the planning consent and appeals system is urgently required to speed up property delivery. We also call for a 2-tier planning process, whereby planning for developments are processed separately, and are fast tracked. This is necessary to deliver housing at scale.
Clare County Council is one of the strongest performing local authorities in the delivery of social housing in recent years, and are to be congratulated on that achievement. However, we desperately need to see that level of success repeated with similar delivery of truly affordable together with private residential housing, to underpin economic growth.
Diarmuid McMahon concluded, “The continued competitiveness of the Mid-West region cannot be taken for granted; housing delivery must remain a priority.”
Ends.
