Written Answers Nos. 122-126
122. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the membership of the social housing strategy oversight group; the number of meetings it has held since it was established; and to provide the Houses of Oireachtas, with copies of the minutes of its meetings. [9233/16]
View answer123. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the membership of the Dublin social housing delivery taskforce; the number of meetings it has held since it was established; and to provide the Houses of the Oireachtas, with copies of the minutes of its meetings. [9234/16]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 122 and 123 together.
The Social Housing Strategy 2020, published in November 2014, targets the provision of over 110,000 social housing units, through the delivery of 35,000 new social housing units and meeting the housing needs of some 75,000 households mainly through the Housing Assistance Payment. The Strategy is available on my Department’s website at the following link:
http://www.environ.ie/sites/default/files/publications/files/social_strategy_document_20141126.pdf.
The Strategy contains a robust governance and implementation framework and provides for a strong focus on on-going monitoring and review which will drive delivery, reform and policy development during its lifetime. The Governance structure is set out in Chapter 7.
In that regard, I, along with my colleague Minister of State Paudie Coffey, have co-chaired the high-level Oversight Group, which is made up of key stakeholders, to drive the Strategy’s overall implementation. There have been nine meetings of the Oversight Group since the publication of the Social Housing Strategy 2020 in November 2014.
Membership of the Oversight Group is set out in the following table:
|
Minister Alan Kelly T.D. |
Co-Chair |
Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government |
|
Minister of State Paudie Coffey |
Co-Chair |
Minister of State at the Department of the Environment with Special Responsibility for Housing, Planning and Coordination of the Construction 2020 Strategy |
|
Mr. John McCarthy |
Secretary General |
Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government |
|
Ms Bairbre Nic Aongusa |
Assistant Secretary/Chair of the Social Housing Strategy Project Board |
Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government |
|
Ms Helen Faughnan |
Assistant Secretary |
Department of Social Protection |
|
Ms Patricia Coleman |
Assistant Secretary |
Department of Public Expenditure & Reform |
|
Mr. John McCarthy |
Chief Economist |
Department of Finance |
|
Mr. Padraig Ó Conaill |
Principal Officer |
Department of Social Protection |
|
Mr. Daniel McLoughlin |
Chief Executive/Chair of the Dublin Social Housing Delivery Taskforce |
South Dublin County Council |
|
Mr. Pat Gallagher |
Chief Executive/Chair of County & City Management Association |
Westmeath County Council |
|
Mr. Eugene Cummins |
Chief Executive/Chair of County & City Management Association, Housing Committee |
Roscommon County Council |
|
Dr. Donal McManus |
Chief Executive Officer |
Irish Council for Social Housing |
|
Mr. Kieron Brennan |
Chief Executive Officer |
Co-operative Housing Ireland |
|
Dr. Rory O'Donnell |
Director |
National Economic & Social Council |
Given the scale of the challenge in the Dublin area, a key early action of the Strategy was the establishment of a Dublin Social Housing Delivery Taskforce (DSHDT), to oversee and drive the Strategy’s implementation across the four Dublin local authorities.
Full details regarding the Taskforce’s role and its terms of reference are set out at paragraph 4.3 of the Strategy. There have been fourteen meetings of the Taskforce since the publication of the Social Housing Strategy 2020 in November 2014.
Membership of the Taskforce is set out in the following table:
|
Mr. Daniel McLoughlin (Chair) |
Chief Executive |
South Dublin County Council |
|
Mr. Owen Keegan |
Chief Executive |
Dublin City Council |
|
Mr. Paul Reid |
Chief Executive |
Fingal County Council |
|
Ms Philomena Poole |
Chief Executive |
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council |
|
Ms Bairbre Nic Aongusa |
Assistant Secretary/Chair of the Social Housing Strategy Project Board |
Department of the Environment, Community & Local Government |
|
Mr. John O'Connor |
Chief Executive |
Housing Agency |
|
Mr. Geoff Corcoran |
Director of Development |
Co-operative Housing Ireland |
|
Mr. Donal McManus |
Chief Executive Officer |
Irish Council for Social Housing |
Minutes of the meetings of the Social Housing Strategy Oversight Group, the Dublin Social Housing Delivery Taskforce and the Social Housing Strategy Project Board are available on my Department’s website at the following link: http://www.environ.ie/search/archived/current/sub-type/minutes-meeting?query=Social%20Housing%20Strategy.
124. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government for a progress report on the cost rental pilot project, as committed to in the Social Housing Strategy 2020. [9235/16]
View answerAn important part of the Social Housing Strategy 2020 is its focus on the rented sector and its potential as a stable and secure source of high-quality housing support for low and middle income households which is affordable to both tenants and the State. This work forms one of the key blocks of Pillar 2 of the Strategy, exploring ways of enhancing the capacity of the rental sector to contribute to the provision of affordable housing support in a sustainable manner, supporting the continued growth in the rental sector, avoiding an over reliance on any one particular tenure and reflecting wider labour market patterns and the need for an increasingly mobile work-force. The particular focus of this work is on the potential of cost/affordable rental models to provide secure, affordable accommodation in the rented sector.
In that context, an Affordable Rental pilot scheme was announced in October 2015, as part of Budget 2016. The scheme is currently being developed in my Department. €10m has been made available for the scheme in 2016, the first step in what is to be an on-going annual commitment to secure a long term increase in the supply of housing for affordable rental. On 2 February 2016, Government approved the over-arching principles which will underpin the arrangements being developed to give effect to an affordable rental scheme. Work on the developing the detailed terms of the scheme is ongoing.
The scheme is expected to work on the basis of qualifying tenants paying the majority of the rental cost from their own resources, with the State helping to meet the shortfall. A State intervention - such as a subsidy - would be applied to bridge the gap between what people can afford, and what the housing market charges. Such a scheme would also facilitate and incentivise private investment into this sector.
125. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government for a progress report on the National Asset Management Agency special purpose vehicle. detailed in the Social Housing Strategy 2020, including the names of the persons and organisations involved; the number of meetings held; the number of units produced via the special purpose vehicle; and the number of new tenancies created, since the special purpose vehicle was established. [9236/16]
View answerFollowing proactive engagement between NAMA, the Housing Agency and this Department, a process has been established since late 2011 to ascertain whether residential properties made available by NAMA, through its borrowers and receivers, are suitable for social housing. As a means of expediting the provision of social housing NAMA established a special purpose vehicle – National Asset Residential Property Services Ltd (NARPS). The purpose of this SPV is to acquire properties from developers or receivers in NAMA’s portfolio of loans and to make these available to local authorities and AHBs by way of a long term lease. In this way, a number of legal complexities around the securing of properties can be addressed and the process can move more quickly. A Steering Group was established comprising representatives of NAMA, the Housing Agency and my Department in order to work systematically through the units identified by NAMA, and to determine if there is a social housing demand for the properties. The Steering Group generally meets fortnightly and there have been approximately 100 meetings since 2012. Within this context, significant progress has been made in respect of delivery.
At the end of March 2016, a total of 2,042 residential properties have been delivered for social housing providers comprising of 1,469 completed properties with a further 573 that have been contracted where completion work is on-going. Of these 1,066 were contracted/delivered through the mechanism of NARPS. Full information including a breakdown by Local Authority is available on the website of the Housing Agency at www.housing.ie/NAMA and also on the NAMA website www.nama.ie.
Local Authorities, particularly those in high demand areas, are continually reviewing the list of available NAMA properties to see if they are suitable to be brought into use as social housing for people on local authority housing lists. The allocation and tenanting of social housing units is a matter for the relevant local authority, and my Department does not hold any records in this regard.
126. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the number and cost of housing adaptation grants provided, by grant type, and by the number of persons on the waiting lists, in each of the years 2000 to 2016 to date, in tabular form. [9237/16]
View answerInformation on the funding provided to each local authority by my Department under the Housing Adaptation Grants for Older People and People with a Disability is available on my Department’s website at the following link: http://www.environ.ie/housing/statistics/social-and-affordble/other-local-authority-housing-scheme-statistics. The detailed administration of the grants is the responsibility of the local authorities and my Department does not hold information in relation to waiting lists.
Information on the 2016 allocations is available on my Department’s website at the following link: http://www.environ.ie/housing/grantsfinancial-assistance/ministers-kelly-coffey-announce-eu5625-million-improve-homes.
