Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 July 2019
2972. Deputy John Curran asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the amount of funding drawn down through the LIHAF in 2018 and to date in 2019; the number of draw down requests that have been submitted; the number of requests being processed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34418/19]
View answerAs a key initiative of the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, the Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (LIHAF) is designed to fund the provision of public off-site infrastructure to relieve critical infrastructure blockages and enable housing developments to be built on key sites at scale.
Funding of €200 million was originally made available under LIHAF, of which €150 million would be funded by the Exchequer with local authorities to match fund €50 million. 30 projects received final approval at a total cost of €195.71 million, of which €146.69 million will be funded by the Exchequer and local authorities will fund the balance. Details on all of the LIHAF projects by local authority area, budget
allocation, project description, and housing delivery have been published on the Rebuilding Ireland website and are available at the following link:
www.rebuildingireland.ie/LIHAF
In terms of LIHAF funding drawdown, thus far, most projects have been at the design and planning stages, whereas the bulk of expenditure only arises during the construction phase, and this is reflected in the level of expenditure to date. As more projects progress further through construction, it is expected that the drawdown will increase significantly during the rest of 2019 and 2020.
In 2018, 59 LIHAF claims were received, all of which all were paid. To date in 2019, 41 claims have been received, 40 of which have been paid and 1 currently being processed.
LIHAF drawdown commenced in 2017 with €1.60m provided, increasing to €6.814m in 2018 and increasing further to €11.658m to date in 2019. This brings the total Exchequer funding drawn down to date to some € 21.7 million.
