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Local Authority Housing

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 26 September 2019

Thursday, 26 September 2019

Questions (201)

Bernard Durkan

Question:

201. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government his views on whether the lack of adequate local authority housing might be considered an infrastructural deficit, with a view to prioritising capital investment and thereby reducing the number on the local authority housing list or the Rebuilding Ireland programme and having particular regard for the need to make a serious impact on the local authority housing list; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39161/19]

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Written answers

The delivery of new social housing is a priority for the Government as can be seen in the targeted delivery, this year, of 10,000 new social homes through build, acquisition and lease, under the Government's Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan on Housing and Homelessness. In addition, the Government's commitment to the delivery of social housing homes is evident from the National Development Plan 2018-2027, which provides for the delivery of 112,000 new social homes over the next decade, supported by capital funding of €11.6 billion.

All local authorities are being funded to significantly increase their delivery of social housing under Rebuilding Ireland and a strong social housing construction pipeline is in place for local authorities and approved housing bodies. National social housing delivery targets have been set under Rebuilding Ireland to 2021 and are publicly available on a local authority basis, on the Rebuilding Ireland website at the following link: http://rebuildingireland.ie/news/social-housing-targets-2019/. Progress against these targets is tracked on a quarterly basis and details are published on my Department's website at https://www.housing.gov.ie/housing/social-housing/social-and-affordble/overall-social-housing-provision.

The social housing delivery targets set for each local authority are in proportion to their waiting lists. Accordingly, as progress is made by each authority against their delivery targets, this will proportionally benefit those on individual waiting lists. The most recently available Summary of Social Housing Assessments relates to 2018 and, at national level, the number of households on the waiting list had decreased by 13,941 (-16.2%), compared to the previous assessment in June 2017, with 29 of the 31 local authorities reporting a decrease.

A strong social housing construction pipeline is in place and a detailed breakdown of this is contained in the Social Housing Construction Status Report which is updated and published on a quarterly basis. The report covering the period up to end Quarter 2 2019 is available on the Rebuilding Ireland website at https://rebuildingireland.ie/news/minister-murphy-publishes-social-housing-construction-status-report-for-q2-2019-2/, providing project details of the social housing construction pipeline in place at that stage for all local authorities.

The Quarter 2 report reflected an increase in the scale of the social housing build programme, with over 1,500 schemes (or phases of schemes) in place, delivering over 22,000 new social housing homes. Of this total, over 7,300 new homes have already been delivered up to Quarter 2 of 2019, while over 6,400 additional new homes were under construction. Over 2,700 further homes were at the final pre-construction stage and the remainder were progressing through the various stages of planning, design and procurement.

The timing, delivery and tenanting of schemes is a matter in the first place for each local authority. I am pleased to see the progress being made on projects, building on what has been already delivered, but I am keen that all local authorities further accelerate their programmes and I have assured them that the necessary funding is available to support their work in this regard.

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