Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 27 September 2018
248. Deputy Barry Cowen asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the location the proceeds from the sale of Bord Gáis currently lie in view of the fact that €10 million is allocated per year for a pilot scheme on social housing; the rate of return these proceeds are earning; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39275/18]
View answerPrior to publication of the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, it was planned to establish a financial vehicle to facilitate the aggregation of private investment into a fund for subsequent lending as project finance. The intention was that this investment would be off-balance sheet and in Budget 2015, the Government announced that €400m of public investment would be made available, including the proceeds from the sale of Bord Gáis, to provide 2,000 homes. The objective was that this investment could leverage private sector finance from the EIB, ISIF, pension funds, credit unions and other financial institutions.
A structured, formal process was put in place to facilitate engagement with these bodies. A body called the Social Housing Investment Proposals Clearing House Group was established to examine and consider proposals and to meet with the companies, groups and institutions involved. However, despite a detailed investigation of options to use the available funding in this way, including a high level of engagement with potential social housing providers and potential financiers of social housing, no new model that would, of itself, be capable of providing and/or financing social housing on an off-balance sheet basis could be identified that would be capable of utilising the available funding.
In response to this outcome, it was decided to modify the original commitment in relation to the €400m funding to provide €10m per annum, indexed for inflation, over a longer period (20 years). As indicated in the Government's 2018 Expenditure Report, this €10 million allocation is built into my Department’s current ceiling for 2018, and is being utilised to support the delivery of social housing programmes in accordance with the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan, as outlined in previous Parliamentary Question replies. As also outlined previously, the affordable rental concept is now instead being progressed on publicly owned lands, using a cost rental approach, through two initial projects being rolled out in Dublin, with others to follow.
