Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 18 May 2016
112. Deputy James Lawless asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the funding available to Kildare County Council for the social housing fund to enable them to build and-or buy houses; the extent to which this funding has been drawn down by Kildare County Council; when the first units are expected to become available; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10804/16]
Amharc ar fhreagraTargets in respect of social housing delivery via a combination of building, buying and leasing schemes were set for each local authority out to 2017 and are available on my Department’s website, along with the associated provisional funding allocations, at the following link: http://www.environ.ie/en/DevelopmentHousing/Housing/News/MainBody,41016,en.htm.
Almost €87 million has been allocated to Kildare County Council for the delivery of 1,283 social housing units. It is a matter in the first instance for the Council to identify projects, across all approaches, to deliver social housing as soon as possible. I am keen that all local authorities, including Kildare County Council, advance these projects as soon as possible and I have assured them that funding is available to fully support their efforts in this regard, including construction and acquisition projects.
Following the notification of targets to Kildare County Council and other local authorities in April 2015, approvals for a substantial number of new social housing projects were announced in May 2015, July 2015 and January 2016. Between these three announcements, almost €680 million has been allocated for over 3,900 social housing new builds, turnkey developments and acquisitions. Details of these project approvals, including for Kildare, are available on my Department’s website at the following links:
http://www.environ.ie/en/DevelopmentHousing/Housing/News/MainBody,41340,en.htm
http://www.environ.ie/en/DevelopmentHousing/Housing/News/MainBody,42225,en.htm
http://www.environ.ie/housing/social-housing/ministers-kelly-coffey-announce-further-1000-social-housing-units.
A full report on actions delivered under the Strategy in 2015 can be found in the Social Housing Output in 2015 report. The report, which was published on 26 January 2016, in collaboration with the Housing Agency, is available on my Department’s website at the following link:-
http://www.environ.ie/sites/default/files/publications/files/social_housing_output_in_2015_0.pdf.
Additional data on the breakdown of output, across all social housing delivery programmes, by local authority in 2015, is available on my Department’s website at the following link:-
http://www.environ.ie/sites/default/files/attachments/1a2-sh-2015-brkdn_1.xlsx.
In 2015, my Department provided over €12.1 million to Kildare County Council for the delivery of new social housing units under both the construction and acquisition programmes and the figure to date in 2016 is almost €4.6 million. In addition to the funding provided by my Department, Kildare County Council also contributes significant levels of funding from their own resources for the delivery of these units.
In addition, under the Social Housing Strategy the delivery of new social housing units through a public private partnership (PPP) model is being pursued. The PPP programme will have an investment of €300 million to deliver 1,500 social housing units and it is being rolled-out in three bundles. The first bundle of PPP sites, to provide over 500 new housing units, was announced in October 2015 and covers six sites, one of which is to deliver some 75 units at Craddockstown, Naas, County Kildare.
