Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 9 June 2020
725. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the number of council house completions across the four Dublin local authorities was 228 in 2019 in comparison to 634 in 2018; if his attention has further been drawn to the fact that the projections for 2020 are lower again; his plans to improve these; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10418/20]
View answerIn relation to the figure of 228 council house completions across the four Dublin local authorities cited by the Deputy, the total build output of the four Dublin local authorities in 2019 was in fact 1,665 social housing homes. This comprised 381 homes built directly by the local authorities, a further 658 homes delivered in partnership with Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs), 526 homes delivered through the Part V mechanisms and 100 homes restored to use under the Voids (capped) programme. This output represents 27.4% of the build output for the country.
Looking at a single delivery stream, i.e. local authority build, in isolation does not accurately portray the housing delivery activity in a local authority area. AHBs are significant delivery partners, providing homes for social housing eligible households on local authority waiting lists.
It should be noted that the four Dublin local authorities face particular challenges regarding the availability and cost of land for new builds and in the context of this challenge, the four local authorities also delivered a further 844 homes through acquisitions (30% of the national output); speeding up the availability of homes for families in the Dublin region. A further 332 homes were delivered through the leasing programme.
Nationally, more than 10,000 (10,007) new social housing homes were delivered through the delivery mechanisms of build (6,074), acquisition (2,772) and leasing (1,161) of which just under 29% (2,871) were delivered by the Dublin local authorities.
The latest Construction Status Report covers the period up to end Q4 2019 and shows that since the beginning of Rebuilding Ireland, a total of 233 schemes have been completed by the four Dublin local authorities delivering 4,007 homes. In addition to this, the report shows that there are already a further 121 schemes currently at planning, design, tender or construction stage, which will deliver 3,518 additional homes when complete. The timing of these completions may cross annual reporting periods, resulting in variations from year to year, however the objective is certainly to increase annual outputs.
My Department continues to provide funding, as well as technical support, advice and guidance to local authorities and AHBs to expand and accelerate their housing delivery, particularly around new build activity. Increasing build capacity is not an immediate input/output activity, it takes time to build capacity and supply, however this steady increase is visible in the outputs since 2016 when there were 657 new social home completions across 31 local authorities (excluding Voids) to over 5,770 in 2019.
