Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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374. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government when the new architectural departments being set up across local authorities will be concluded; if he has a timeframe for the recruitment process to staff these new departments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30926/23]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Housing for All, is the Government’s plan to increase the supply of housing to an average of 33,000 per year over the next decade. This includes the delivery of 90,000 social homes and 54,000 affordable homes by 2030. Housing for All is supported by an investment package of over €4bn per annum, through an overall combination of €12bn in direct Exchequer funding, €3.5bn in funding through the Land Development Agency and €5bn funding through the Housing Finance Agency.

Housing for All includes a commitment to strengthen the capacity of local authorities to initiate, design, plan, develop and manage housing projects. Extensive work was undertaken in 2021 to identify the additional staff resources required by local authorities to deliver the social housing targets set out in Housing for All. In December 2021, I approved funding for 250 housing posts in local authorities nationally to support in social housing delivery.

In October 2022, I also approved funding for an initial tranche of 69 affordable housing staff posts for local authorities with an affordability constraint. My Department and the Housing Delivery Coordination Office in the Local Government Management Agency will be monitoring this programme further to a review of any additional supports being examined in 2023.

Under Section 159 of the Local Government Act 2001, each Chief Executive is responsible for the staffing and organisational arrangements necessary for carrying out the functions of the local authority for which he/she is responsible. My Department oversees workforce planning for the local government sector, including the monitoring of local government sector employment levels. To this end, my Department gathers aggregate quarterly data on staff numbers in each local authority on a whole time equivalent basis.

However, granular data, in terms of the detailed breakdown of the numbers and grades of staff allocated to specific work areas within local authorities is not collected and consequently is not available in my Department. The relevant information would be available from the local authorities concerned.