The Carrigtwohill Housing Activation project involves regeneration of the town centre, new transport links, and additional utilities. 

It is expected to provide direct access to lands for 2,737 homes and indirectly unlock a further 1,646.

The programme also includes phase two of the Waterrock development, which will unlock land for up to 5,404 homes.

The Carrigtwohill and Waterrock projects are expected to receive nearly €20m each.

Two smaller projects — Tower Bridge and the LDA’s Wilton scheme — will together unlock land for a further 1,024 homes. Each is expected to receive funding of around €10m.

Mr Browne said the approved projects are “shovel ready” and that he wanted to see local authorities move quickly and get them built to enable delivery of more houses.

“This will open up those lands where there’s land zoned or about to be zoned. Then private developers, or local authorities, or approved housing bodies can then build quite quickly,” said Mr Browne, admitting that "this is going to take a bit of time by the time the roads are built".

He said: “What I’d hope and what I’d expect is the local authorities and private developers to see that these are now coming, and they can start getting their planning permission in line.” 

Mr Browne said if local authorities are too slow to use the funding, it would be reassigned.

“This money is not going to be left sitting with a local authority. We’ve given the local authorities freedom to move quickly without lots of business gates, but if they’re not moving money will be reassigned and reassigned very quickly.”