Sligo County Council is building 284 social homes across 12 schemes, with 142 due for completion in the final quarter of 2026, a pipeline that gives regional contractors a visible, multi-year workload.

Sligo County Council, the local authority for County Sligo, is delivering the programme through direct builds, design and build contracts and other routes, funded by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

Coolsivna Construction Group, a Galway-based builder with projects typically valued from €250,000 to €10m, is delivering 14 energy-efficient one- and two-bed homes at Geldof Drive in Cranmore on a site that previously held 10 derelict single-storey units.

Finna Construction, a family-run contractor founded in 2003 and based in Cong, Co Mayo, is delivering the 47-home Rathellen scheme in Finisklin under a design and build contract using modern methods of construction.

The pipeline includes 102 one-bed, 118 two-bed, 51 three-bed, nine four-bed and four five-bed homes, with 62 completions due in Q1 2027, 29 in Q2, 31 in Q3 and 20 in Q4.

Fine Gael Cllr Fergal Nealon said the pipeline reflects the work of council housing staff and Department of Housing funding, and that over 100 one-bed homes will help older people downsize and free larger homes for families.

The scale matters because Sligo has lagged on delivery before: Government social housing targets were missed for a fourth consecutive year in 2025, with Limerick, Sligo and Longford delivering less than half of their objectives.

Nationally, 832 new social homes were delivered in the first quarter of 2026, 714 of them new-build, but the housing minister said the best case for the year still falls well short of the 12,000-home Action Plan target.

Against that backdrop, design and build contracts using modern methods of construction, as at Finisklin, are being used to compress delivery timelines on schemes that sit alongside direct builds and turnkey acquisitions.

For the sector, a council pipeline staged across five quarters through 2027 offers regional builders steadier visibility than one-off tenders, but delivery performance will determine whether that confidence converts into repeat awards.

Source: Irish Independent / The Irish Times / Limerick Post