Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for the questions. First, I acknowledge that it is welcome to have the additional funding from central government in the Supplementary Estimate and that we are able to put it to productive use. Other Supplementary Estimates for other Departments cover pay issues, whereas through this Supplementary Estimate we are putting money into building, acquisitions, regeneration and the provision of emergency accommodation and family hubs. It is good that we are able to do so. It represents increased activity in the sector, something for which we have been pushing in the past year or more.

The additional €92 million is in subhead A3 and the allocation will deliver a number of additional units. Our target for the year under the heading of build and acquisition was 3,600 units. We will exceed that figure. The money will go mainly towards acquisitions. I cannot give the Deputy a final figure because under the heading of acquisition we are trying to deal with some bank-led vacancies. All of it has not been achieved to date. Early in January I hope to be able to outline in detail exactly we landed in 2017. It will mean that when we start 2018 we will know exactly from where we are coming. In that way, we will be coming from an informed position and Deputies will then be able to judge how realistic our targets for 2018 are and whether we will need to re-balance some of them. At the end of the year we will be able to see that in almost every category we exceeded our targets for the year. In some areas we will have exceeded them by a good deal. At the beginning of next year we might then look to see whether the committee agrees in respect of the additional units to be delivered under certain programmes, whether we should be looking to re-prioritise elsewhere.

Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked how many units had tenants. Obviously, that is the responsibility of the local authorities. In the course of replying to questions in the House on Thursday we will talk about the recent work done on the numbers on social housing lists. I have given a commitment to Deputies and councillors that I will write to every local authority to inform it of its targets for next year and beyond. There will be another housing summit in January. I have already indicated that at the summit I will go through the targets and exactly how they are to be achieved. Every time I meet representatives of a local authority we discuss the time it takes to allocate tenants. It is an important issue.

Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked from where the money had come. It was allocated from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. Therefore, there would have been an underspend elsewhere. It was a matter for the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to allocate, as he did across the various Departments with Supplementary Estimates this year.

Deputy Eoin Ó Broin referred to the table included in the briefing material provided. It is not yet possible for me to give him a clear number for acquisitions. I realise we are approaching the end of the year, but some things are still happening that are relevant in terms of what we are going to do. What I would like to do as early as possible next year is provide the committee with the details what was achieved. I intend to set that information against each spending target in the table. We will then have a definite idea, rather than speculating now.

I am unsure whether I have all the other questions asked written down.