Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 October 2018
680. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the amount of funding released for the construction of social housing under the Rebuilding Ireland programme; if he will provide a schedule of funding issued on a local authority basis; the projects for which funding was released; the amount awarded by project; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43329/18]
View answerSocial housing construction is funded under a range of different initiatives such as local authority construction, turnkey developments, rapid delivery and regeneration programmes and through construction and turnkey developments by approved housing bodies. Rebuilding Ireland is a six year programme covering the period 2016 to 2021. In the period to end September 2018, €715 million has been invested in social housing construction projects.
In addition, funding of almost €68 million has been provided to local authorities under my Department's Voids Programme. This funding is provided to support local authorities in remediating those social housing homes that may require a greater level of investment than the normal level of pre-letting repairs that local authorities would ordinarily carry out, as part of their on-going repair and maintenance of local authority housing.
The breakdown of the expenditure over the period in question at individual local authority and project levels is not readily available. However, if the Deputy is concerned about a specific local authority or local authorities, I will have the matter explored further on receipt of the relevant information.
However, insofar as the social housing construction programme is concerned, my Department now publishes, on a quarterly basis, a comprehensive status report of all social housing construction schemes for all local authority areas showing details such as their locations, a range of information relating to their advancement, including those delivered and those progressing through planning, design and construction. The most recent of these reports covers the period up to the end of Quarter 2 2018 and lists 1,067 approved social housing construction schemes, delivering over 16,300 homes. The report can be accessed at the following link: http://rebuildingireland.ie/news/minister-murphy-publishes-latest-social-housing-construction-report/. Further project approvals are being added to the construction programme as projects are developed by local authorities and approved housing bodies.
More broadly, a total of €1.4 billion was expended in 2017 on the implementation of the full range of housing programmes, which resulted in the delivery of social housing solutions for almost 26,000 households. In 2018, investment of €1.9 billion is being provided for housing and this was increased further in Budget 2019 with almost €2.4 billion being provided for housing programmes next year.
