I propose to take Questions Nos. 766 to 768, inclusive, together.
As Part 8 type developments are exempt from planning permission, my Department does not collate statistics in this regard. In order to obtain this information, individual local authorities should be contacted directly.
In the first instance, it is a matter for each local authority and its elected members to agree the optimal approach with regard to the development, the financing and the zoning of its land bank. Moreover, local authorities are required to frame the planning policies in their development plans in a balanced and measured way to ensure that long-term strategic housing needs are met across all types and tenures within their functional area in both urban and rural locations.
Notwithstanding this, my Department has been working closely with all local authorities, to ensure that new social and affordable homes can be delivered from the public land bank, with particular emphasis on prioritising those sites with the greatest potential to deliver housing at scale, in the short to medium term.
In terms of the strategic development of the State’s residential land bank, all local authority sites have been mapped on the Rebuilding Ireland land map. The map includes details of over 700 local authority and Housing Agency owned sites amounting to some 1,700 hectares. This equates to a capacity (based on a national average of 35 units per hectare) of 59,500. The Rebuilding Ireland land map is available at https://rebuildingireland.ie/news/rebuilding-ireland-land-map/.
With regard to local authority owned lands that are zoned for housing, progression of development proposals for such lands is a matter for the relevant local authority in the first instance in accordance with housing, planning and local government legislation. This is the case whether development be directly or in partnership with other interests, such as Approved Housing Bodies or other housing providers.
A strong social housing construction pipeline is already in place on many of the local authority sites, details of which are set out in the Social Housing Construction Status Report which is updated and published on a quarterly basis. The report covering the period up to end Quarter 3 of 2019, is available on the Rebuilding Ireland website at https://rebuildingireland.ie/news/minister-murphy-publishes-social-housing-construction-status-report-for-q3-2019/ .
The information is provided by each local authority area and it is updated and published on a quarterly basis.