The Minister for Public Expenditure announced that an extra half a billion euro would be allocated to the housing capital budget next year in order to facilitate the the construction of 9,500 new social housing units.
12,750 units would be added to the social housing stock, including leased units, Michael McGrath said.
€65 million would also be made available to fund deep retrofitting of the social housing stock.
He said the current spending allocation of €2.4 billion in 2021 would support an additional 15,000 Housing Assistance Payment tenancies and 800 Rental Accommodation Scheme tenancies.
"This means that approximately 85,000 tenancies will be supported through these schemes next year," Minister McGrath said in his budget speech.
The total allocation to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage in 2021 would increase by €773 million to €5.2 billion, which, the Minister noted, was a record level of spending.
Michael McGrath announced an affordability package of €110 million for next year to provide for affordable housing and cost rental schemes.
He said the Serviced Sites Fund and the Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund would progress the delivery of over 2,000 affordable homes on both private and public land next year.
Upon enactment of legislation, the Land Development Agency would have over €1.2 billion of funding available to it to progress a range of projects already underway.
"This funding, matched with other financing arrangements, will deliver nearly 9,000 affordable housing and cost rental units in the coming years," the Minister said.
€210 million is to be made available for lending under the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan Scheme.
"To build social, affordable and private residential units, we need land to be made available in key strategic locations and for that land to be serviced," the Minister concluded.
