Mr. Graham Doyle:

I am pleased to be here this morning to assist the committee in further examination of programme a under Vote 34 following on from our attendance some weeks ago and chapter 11 - utilisation of the land aggregation scheme sites. We look forward to addressing questions and I have provided some advance briefing material along with responses to the questions arising from the wider session on 26 October.

I am joined by colleagues from the Housing Agency who will be assisting with discussions on chapter 11 and also answering the committee's questions in relation to their financial statements for 2022.

At the previous session, which dealt with Vote 34 work and work across the Department, I mentioned the scale and breadth of the Department's activities with ten divisions and dealing with number of priorities under the programme for Government. The focus and commitment of staff, and staff across more than 20 bodies under the aegis of the Department, local authority partners and many other stakeholders, continues.

There are significant challenges in the housing market in Ireland today and my Department is working with colleagues across Government to address these. Just as there is no single cause, no single solution is possible. A range of new programmes has been introduced over the last two to three years aimed at driving increased supply from many angles and providing support to the cohorts that need it.

The mechanisms by which housing is delivered have become increasingly complex. This complexity includes varying funding models, enabling the delivery across capital and current streams, a requirement for the development of new schemes, particularly in the area of affordable housing, a range of approaches to address vacancy and many other things.

The development of new schemes and bringing them forward from inception to roll out has entailed considerable work in conjunction with the various stakeholders and delivery partners. Adaptations and changes in some of these schemes were required in the face of challenges in the market, particularly interest rates, inflation, legal hurdles to be crossed, etc. These are all aimed at arriving at a position where the schemes can work and ultimately deliver.

Overall, significantly increased funding levels have been allocated to the Department across a number of subheads to support these developments. The annual Vote at current and capital funding provided for housing under programme A has increased from just over €2 billion to just over €3.5 billion in the space of five years.

The pattern of spend, particularly in relation to capital funding, continues to occur in quarter 4 of a given year, where local authorities submit large volumes of claims towards the end of the year within the order of 50% of the annual provision being spent generally in quarter 4. While we engaged earlier this year with the committee on 2022 capital spend, overall capital expenditure to the end of November is just over €700 million higher or approximately 40% higher compared to the same period last year.

The challenges that have arisen in recent years, including supply interruption during the pandemic, inflation following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, increased rate environment and also new demands arising have all had an effect. Agility and responsiveness have been necessary, together with a focus on value for money. To address the overall challenge and to be well positioned to pivot towards priority areas, the system as a whole must be looked at. This has meant making changes to schemes where required.

Under Housing for All, the supply of new homes to the broader housing system is increasing. Some 31,500 new homes were completed over the 12 months to the end of September this year. Building commenced on just over 26,500 new homes in the first ten months of this year. This is a 17% increase on the period last year. The second annual update of Housing for All was recently published. It sets out policy and delivery priorities for the year ahead. These include measures aimed at improving viability of housing construction, including the adoption of modern methods of construction, as well as enhancing construction sector capacity and reforming the planning system.

Regarding social and affordable housing delivery, local authorities, AHB sector and the LDA continue to work in partnership with the Department. In 2022 the overall delivery of new homes in Ireland was more than 29,000 new homes in Ireland. In this context, more than 10,000 homes were added to the social housing stock. Just under 7,500 of these were new build social homes and a further 1,800 were mainly through new build, leasing and other programmes with the remainder largely through acquisition. We have seen strong spend on social housing this year with significant units expected to be delivered in quarter 4, exceeding last year's output. Given the number of projects on site, the pipeline for 2024 is strong.

At our last meeting we spoke about 2022 representing the first year of an ambitious programme on affordable housing with more than 1,700 affordable purchase and cost-rental interventions made in 2022. By the end of Q3 this was more than 3,800 across the various programmes with more expected to the end of the year. The affordable schemes are new and given the challenging environment, we are happy to see good appetite on the part of various partners. In the past few months, the Minister has approved €448 million in funding to support the delivery of more than 1,900 new cost rental and affordable purchase homes. This momentum will continue as we build the pipeline of affordable housing with local authorities, AHBs approved housing and the LDA.

The public awareness of the supports available has had a positive impact, with a good response to our recent open doors campaign. This included information for the public about the first home scheme, the local authority home loan, help to buy, local authority affordable purchase scheme, cost rental and the vacant property refurbishment grant.