Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 26 June 2014
156. Deputy Terence Flanagan asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government to set out his plans to tackle social housing lists; his views on the size of these lists; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27799/14]
View answerThe results of the statutory Summary of Social Housing Assessments carried out in 2013 showed that there were 89,872 households on local authority waiting lists as at 7 May 2013 and these results are available on my Department’s website at: http://www.environ.ie/en/Publications/DevelopmentandHousing/Housing/FileDownLoad,34857,en.pdf.
The 2013 figure represents a decrease of 9% on the 98,318 households recorded under the previous summary assessment carried out as at 31 March 2011. The 2013 figures are the most up-to-date figures available on waiting list numbers, which are subject to on-going fluctuation due to households being allocated housing and new households applying for housing support. However, the 2013 results cannot be directly compared to previous results given that this latest summary employed different methodologies and was the first to be carried out under the 2011 Social Housing Assessment Regulations.
The Government is committed to responding more quickly and on a larger scale to social housing needs through a variety of mechanisms. In terms of the delivery of social housing, the main focus in terms of supports provided by Government will be on meeting the most acute needs – the housing support needs of those unable to provide for their accommodation from own resources.
On 14 May 2014, the Government published Construction 2020 – A Strategy for a Renewed Construction Sector. The Strategy contains 75 Actions in total and my Department, together with the Housing Agency, will be involved in the delivery of over 30 of those. Under Action 8 of Construction 2020, a Social Housing Strategy is to be published by Q3 2014; to assist in its development, the Housing Agency has invited submissions by 31 July 2014. Further information is available at the following weblink: http://www.housing.ie/News/Current-News/Invitation-for-Submissions-Preparation-of-a-Social.aspx.
It is clear that the present and foreseeable economic context in which we must address social housing need is such that innovative, and indeed challenging, solutions must be found which will harness new funding streams. While the local authorities will continue to have the lead role in addressing social housing need, in their capacity as statutory housing authorities, the growing role of the not-for-profit sector, as represented by the Approved Housing Bodies, and other potential investors must also be further developed.
My intention is that the Strategy will be both challenging and innovative, and will provide the basis for an enhanced approach to social housing provision in Ireland. It will contain clear measurable actions that are to be taken to increase the supply of social housing and, most importantly, reduce the number of people on waiting lists over the next five years.
With the benefit of the recent injection of €50m for social housing from the Government’s May 2014 stimulus announcement, on top of the original housing budget of some €587m, I now expect the final output across all social housing programmes for 2014 to be in the region of 6,000 new housing units. The number and method of delivery of social housing units in future years will be determined in the course of the annual Estimates process and will be informed by the Social Housing Strategy now in preparation.
