Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 11 April 2024
141. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the extent to which housing developments are in hand in each local authority throughout the country, as well as in County Kildare, with a view to alleviating the waiting list for local authority and affordable housing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15904/24]
View answerHousing for All is the Government’s plan to increase the supply of housing to an average of 33,000 new homes per year, over the next decade. This includes the delivery of 90,000 social homes, 36,000 affordable purchase homes and 18,000 cost rental homes, to be facilitated by local authorities, Approved Housing Bodies, the Land Development Agency and through First Home, a strategic partnership between the State and retail banks.
All local authorities, including Kildare County Council, have published their social and affordable Housing Delivery Action Plans on their websites, including their proposed public housing delivery for the period 2022-26.
In terms of social and affordable delivery, my Department publishes comprehensive programme-level statistics on a quarterly basis on all delivery activity by local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies in each local authority. This data is available to the end of Q4 2023 and is published on the statistics' page of my Department’s website at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/collection/6060e-overall-social-housing-provision/
A strong pipeline of social housing build projects is in place and this is evident from the Social Housing Construction Status Report (CSR) that my Department also publishes on a quarterly basis. The CSR provides details of social housing developments and their location that have been completed, are under construction or are progressing through the various stages of the design and tender processes. The most recent publication was for Quarter 4 of 2023. All CSRs are available at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/collection/cb885-social-housing-construction-projects-status-reports/. A version of the CSR file can also be downloaded for analysis of completions, locations, approvals stage etc. at this link: data.gov.ie/dataset/social-housing-construction-status-report-q4-2023
My Department, together with the Housing Agency, and the Housing Delivery Coordination Office of the Local Government Management Association, continues to liaise with local authorities, including Kildare County Council, in relation to their ongoing development of affordability programmes that will respond effectively to identified affordability needs. Notably, Kildare has already successfully delivered 19 affordable purchase homes at Grey Abbey, Kildare with the support of the Affordable Housing Fund.
Significant progress is being made to deliver the ambitious targets contained in Housing for All and my Department is working closely with the local authorities, Approved Housing Bodies and other stakeholders to accelerate the delivery of social and affordable housing.
