Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 16 October 2019
88. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Finance the impact of spending on social housing being classified as investment rather than expenditure as part of the EU fiscal rules; and the engagements he has had with the European Commission or EU Council of Ministers to make the case for such a reclassification to assist the State in dealing with the ongoing housing crisis. [42390/19]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe reporting of government spending under the Stability and Growth Pact obligations is classified according to the European System of Accounts 2010 (ESA 2010) framework.
To avoid penalising spikes in government investment in Gross Fixed Capital Formation (GFCF), the European Commission allows this investment to be averaged over a four year period. This means that only one quarter of the increase in GFCF will impact on compliance under the expenditure benchmark in that year. Basically, GFCF is smoothed over four years under the expenditure benchmark.
GFCF of general government consists of annual government investments, deducting disposals, in fixed assets retained for its own use. Fixed assets are tangible or intangible assets as defined by and in accordance with ESA 2010.
Statistical classification is a matter for the national statistical institutes (NSI) in EU Member States, subject to the oversight of Eurostat, the European statistical agency. For Ireland the Central Statistics Office (CSO) is the NSI. Both the CSO and Eurostat are independent in their statistical functions and I have no role in such matters.
The Government has allocated €6.6 billion for the delivery of social housing supports in the last four years. This is an unprecedented level of investment, which will allow Government to continue to respond to the significant increase in demand for housing supports while also prioritising investment in the social housing programme.
Specifically in the area of social housing capital funding of over €1.1 billion has been allocated to support the delivery of over 11,000 new social homes in 2020. A further 12,000 units will be delivered in 2021.
An additional €80 million will be provided for the Housing Assistance Payment scheme next year. This funding will support the existing tenancies availing of the payment, as well as an additional 15,750 new tenancies in 2020.
