I propose to take Questions Nos. 24 and 52 together.
There is continuing, regular contact between myself as Minister and my Department with the local authorities, including those in the Greater Dublin Area. This contact covers all aspects of the Government's Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, which is focused on increasing supply across all tenures, to achieve total housing output of at least 25,000 homes per year by 2020, effectively doubling the output of 12,600 homes recorded in 2015.
With particular regard to the needs of those on housing waiting lists, Rebuilding Ireland sets out the target of delivering 47,000 social housing units through build, refurbishment, acquisition and leasing over the period 2016 to 2021, alongside an accelerated roll-out of the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) Scheme to meet the needs of some 80,000 households. This activity is being supported through a significantly increased investment programme of €5.35 billion, comprising €4.5 billion in capital funding and €844 million in support of programmes funded from current expenditure. A further €226 million is provided for the Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund for investment in key enabling infrastructure to open up lands for early development.
The continuing, regular contact between my Department and the local authorities supports the advancement of social housing, for example through quarterly meetings that focus on resolving technical issues with projects and advancing them to site as soon possible. My Department has continuously urged all local authorities to bring forward projects as quickly as possible, given the significantly increased funding available to support their activity. While still at an early stage of implementation, there is already strong evidence that the focus on increasing and accelerating housing supply in Rebuilding Ireland is yielding results. In 2016, the housing needs of over 19,000 households were met through a range of social housing programmes, supported by expenditure of over €935 million. A further €1.3 billion has been provided for 2017 to support the accelerated delivery of social housing and the achievement of this year's target to meet the housing needs of over 21,000 households.
The national roll out of the HAP scheme was completed on 1 March this year and HAP is now available to all eligible households. There are currently more than 24,000 households being supported by the scheme, with the security of knowing that this support will continue even as their household income increases, subject to adjustment in their differential rent.
In the same vein, there are currently over 500 rapid delivery homes now advancing through the planning design, procurement and construction stages, and work is underway to ensure that a further 500 units are advanced in the coming months, bringing the number of units in the programme to 1,000 by year end. Several of these rapid delivery developments are now in the final stages of construction, showing clearly that this approach is being used successfully and increasingly, and an additional 500 units are targeted for delivery in 2018. The establishment of a framework of rapid delivery contractors by the Office of Government Procurement means that local authorities in the Greater Dublin Area and beyond can take advantage of this approach, allowing them to run quicker procurement competitions and advance rapid delivery projects to site more efficiently.
More broadly, housing construction trends are all showing strong positive growth, with planning permissions, housing development commencement notices and completions of new units, measured by the number of ESB connections, all registering substantial increases on last year. The work of promoting residential development on State lands saw the Rebuilding Ireland Housing Land Map published in April 2017. The map is a vital initial step in the new strategic approach to State land management, which will be further developed through the forthcoming National Planning Framework, to be titled 'Ireland 2040: Our Plan'. The datasets published on the map include details of over 700 local authority and Housing Agency-owned sites, totalling some 1,700 hectares, as well as 30 sites (covering about 200 hectares) owned by State or semi-State bodies. The map is available to view on the Rebuilding Ireland website at: http://rebuildingireland.ie/news/rebuilding-ireland-land-map/ .
Opening up the supply of State land in this way, for social and mixed-tenure housing, is a critically important policy in addressing a situation where the pace of recovery in the housing development sector is slower than it needs to be to meet demand. In practical terms, the development of these sites will mean accelerating social housing delivery and securing more homes for sale and rent at lower and more affordable price points. In this regard, I welcome the fact that two of the Dublin local authorities have already brought forward four key, large-scale sites, capable of delivering 3,000 new homes, and I expect other local authorities to follow suit.
Providing affordable, quality and accessible housing is a top priority for the Government. I will be considering further initiatives and actions to address the issue of affordability in the context of the targeted review of Rebuilding Ireland which my Department has now commenced.
