Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 18 May 2023
74. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of affordable homes he intends to deliver in 2023 and 2024 via the affordable housing fund, the cost rental equity loan, Project Tosaigh and Land Development Agency, LDA, direct delivery. [23808/23]
View answerCould the Minister set out for the House the number of affordable homes that he is hoping to deliver, this year and next year, specifically under the affordable housing fund, the cost rental equity loan, Project Tosaigh and LDA delivery?
I thank the Deputy for his question. Housing for All sets out the range of actions necessary to increase housing supply to the required average of 33,000 homes per annum over the next decade. This includes 54,000 affordable home interventions. They will be delivered between now and 2030. They will be facilitated through local authorities, approved housing bodies, AHBs, the Land Development Agency and strategic partnerships between the State and retail banks. In Housing for All, we targeted affordable purchase and cost rental output of 5,500 and 6,400 for 2023 and 2024, respectively, to be delivered across the various delivery streams, including the first home scheme.
As the Deputy will be aware, 2022 saw the first delivery of affordable housing in a decade by local authorities and the first ever affordable housing delivery by the LDA. I anticipate that the momentum generated by this initial and welcome delivery will be ramped up over 2023 and 2024. A pipeline of housing delivery is now in place across our delivery partners and under ongoing development by local authorities, AHBs and the LDA.
At local level, each local authority has prepared and published a housing delivery action plan in respect of local authority supported or overseen delivery and foreseen output from other delivery streams. They set out projected delivery on an annual basis from 2022 to 2026. All that information is available to all Deputies in the House.
We have a strong pipeline, particularly through the affordable housing fund. We now have 52 projects approved across 15 local authorities with 3,164 homes within that. We are receiving applications every week. Just this week, in Mariners Way, Rush, which is in my own area, we have advertised a further 55 cost-rental homes, which are going out for tenanting right now with rents starting at €910 per month.
Although all very interesting, it does not answer the simple question that I asked.
Here is the problem. Over the last number of years, under the previous Government's plan and the Minister's plan, we know the target for social housing delivery each year. In fact, not only do we know the target for social housing delivery, but it is broken down by local authority and by delivery stream - acquisition, new build and long-term leasing.
Since Deputy Darragh O'Brien became Minister, not only Opposition but his own Government backbenchers in the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage have been asking him can he not just do the same thing for affordable housing. Is it not possible for the Minister to set out for each of the remaining years of Government the number of affordable homes he will deliver over those four key schemes, namely, the affordable housing fund, the cost rental equity loan, Project Tosaigh and the LDA's own delivery?
The difficulty is the Minister's plan has a macro-target - the 4,000 for this year and the 5,000 for next year - in terms of affordable homes, but that also includes homes that are not affordable, funded through the first home shared-equity loan about which we can have a separate debate. All I am asking the Minister to do is something very simple. This year, how many affordable purchase homes is the Minister targeting for delivery under the affordable housing fund? How many cost-rental homes is the Minister targeting to deliver under the cost rental equity loan, and the same for Project Tosaigh and the LDA?
It is interesting the Deputy likes to dismiss the first home scheme, which, by the way, has had an excellent start. We have issued more eligibility certificates and approved more people to buy their homes in the first three months of this year than we did in the last six months of last year. It is a real way that people, many of whom are renting, bridge the gap between the finance that they have and what they need. It is working well. I am conscious Deputy Ó Broin would scrap that as well, as he would scrap the help-to-buy grant-----
Absolutely.
-----which is people's own tax back. Thirty-seven thousand households have used that to attain it.
In relation to delivery streams, I have been clear on this. Our overall target for this year is 5,550. In relation to affordable housing, we have a number of streams, including Project Tosaigh and Croí Cónaithe cities, on which, by the way, I intend to make announcements next month. There is no difficulty in providing the Deputy with the detail of the different streams. On the local authority affordable purchase, for example, we are targeting 1,200 homes in that space this year.
This year?
Yes, this year. There are challenges within that, as with the overall target. In social housing last year, we were able to deliver 10,253 new social homes - the highest amount since 1975.
The Minister has answer a quarter of the question I asked. Maybe, in his final response, I will get the other three quarters.
The question is simple and I am not trying to catch the Minister out. The Minister has told us - this is the first time I have this information - that he is hoping to get 1,200 affordable purchase units from the affordable housing fund. How many is the Minister targeting this year through the cost rental equity loan with the AHBs, how many does the Minister expect, in his conversations with the LDA, will be delivered through Project Tosaigh this year, will any LDA properties be delivered through its own build programme this year, and since the question asked for next year as well, can the Minister give us the targets for next year? It is a simple question.
It is a simple question and as the Deputy might understand as well, delivery can be complex. However, we have a number of delivery streams.
The LDA will deliver through Project Tosaigh this year as well.
How many?
It has already delivered its first cost rental also. The LDA, by the way, which the Deputy opposed, is a development agency to deliver homes on State-owned land.
Does the Minister have a target for this year? It is a fair question.
Right the way across our delivery through the local authority affordable purchase, and the local authority, LA, cost rental, in which we are targeting 200 this year. We broke ground in Tallaght recently on a significant scheme with South Dublin County Council of 134 cost rental through the local authority.
Are those 200 included in the 1,200?
Sorry, Deputy.
It is a genuine question. I am not interrupting the Minister.
The Deputy asked his question and I am answering it.
Are the 200 local authority cost rental included in the 1,200?
It is impossible to answer with continuous interruption.
Let the Minister conclude.
What I will do is supply the Deputy with the details that I have. The Deputy should then highlight the schemes that he does not support-----
Given that I asked the Minister the question today, surely the Minister can give me the answer today.
-----such as the first home scheme, the Land Development Agency and cost rental, on which we are making changes.
The Minister does not have the answer today.
I do have the answer.
The Minister just will not give it to us.
Táimid thar am. Tá mé ag bogadh ar aghaidh.
