Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 1 October 2015
89. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform whether he sees a requirement for specific options that might be pursued to facilitate the alleviation of the housing crisis which has built up over the past 15 years while keeping within the off balance sheet requirements; whether the Government will consider a development bond to address the growing problem; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33894/15]
View answerThe issue faced by the Government in responding to the housing crisis is not related to the availability of funding, but rather to the fiscal space available to the Government under the fiscal rules of the Stability and Growth pact which restrict Government's ability to increase expenditure, including on capital projects. Any funding that would be raised through the issuing by Government of a development bond, as suggested in the question, would be on-balance sheet in General Government terms; this means that it would not add to the fiscal space available and any spending or investment of the funding by the Government would use up existing fiscal space but not provide capacity for additional expenditure.
The Deputy will be aware, however, that the Government is already pursuing a number of off-balance sheet options to help address the housing crisis. Under PPP, €300 million will be invested in social housing which is expected to deliver 1,500 social housing units. Potential sites have been identified and details of the first PPP bundle for procurement of some 500 units will be announced soon. In addition, work is also proceeding on options for the use of the €400 million from the proceeds from the sale of Bord Gáis Energy, which the Government has agreed to make available for this purpose, on an off-balance sheet basis. A Clearing House Sub-Group of the Social Housing Strategy's Finance Workstream, established by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, has engaged in an extensive process of consultation with potential providers and financers of social housing and work is continuing on exploring a number of potential opportunities, identified as a result of the work undertaken to date, to use this €400 million, either alone or in conjunction with additional private funding, to facilitate the delivery of additional social and/or affordable housing through the private and/or voluntary housing sectors. If a private Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to fund social and affordable housing can be developed in that context, it could possibly involve the SPV issuing its own bonds to fund housing.
