Mr. Bob Jordan:

I thank the Cathaoirleach and members for the opportunity to attend today. I am joined by my colleagues, Mr. Jim Baneham, director of delivery and innovation, and Ms Claire Feeney, director of services and inclusion. The Housing Agency provides expertise and solutions to help deliver sustainable communities throughout Ireland. We work with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, local authorities and AHBs in the delivery of housing and housing services.

To meet the housing challenges facing our society, the Housing Agency's role has significantly increased in recent years. New areas of work since the publication of Housing for All, include the land acquisition fund, cost-rental equity loan, security tenancy affordable rental investment scheme, the Croí Cónaithe city scheme and the enhanced defective concrete blocks grant scheme,

We have recently been tasked with administering the interim remediation scheme for the funding of emergency fire safety works in apartments and duplexes announced by the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, earlier this week. Our operational budget for 2023 is €16 million and we currently have 157 staff in the agency.

In January this year, we presented to the committee on the €70 million Housing Agency acquisitions fund. This fund has since been repurposed for the acquisition of properties for Housing First and for the cost rental tenant in situscheme.

Today, we are here to discuss the land aggregation scheme. This was established in 2010 to alleviate the financial burden on local authorities relating to mature Housing Finance Agency loans where residential development of the land had not proceeded. A total of 73 sites were accepted into the scheme, with ownership transferred to the Housing Agency. In managing these sites, the Housing Agency has supported the delivery of 736 social and affordable homes to date. A further 2,482 homes will be delivered on land aggregation scheme, LAGS, sites through local authorities, AHBs and the LDA in the coming years.

Building on our work under the land aggregation scheme, the Housing Agency took on a new role in acquiring land for the direct development of housing in November 2022. A land acquisition fund of €125 million was established by the Government to enable local authorities and AHBs to meet their housing targets out to 2030. A further €114 million has recently been committed to this fund.

The Housing Agency has a number of priority areas of work. A key focus of our work is to increase the supply of new homes. We carry out financial assessments of social housing funding for AHBs and we have expanded our technical team to support to support local authorities and AHBs to deliver housing projects. We support the delivery of cost-rental homes by providing cost-rental equity loans to AHBs and by facilitating the roll out of the secure tenancy affordable rental investment scheme.

We carry out the assessment of applications submitted by local authorities to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage for the affordable housing fund and we provide a central underwriting service for local authority home loans. We manage the roll out of the Croí Cónaithe city scheme to increase the supply of new apartments for home purchasers.

We are also supporting local authorities in the delivery of the vacant property refurbishment grant and the town centre first policy to address vacancy and dereliction.

Another priority of the Housing Agency is to address social inclusion issues. The agency co-ordinates the national housing first programme to end long-term homelessness and we support the implementation of the youth homelessness strategy. We also play a key role in delivering the national housing strategy for disabled people.

Regarding the remediation of defective homes, we oversee the delivery of the pyrite remediation scheme on behalf of the Pyrite Resolution Board and we support local authorities in implementing the enhanced defective concrete blocks grant scheme. As I mentioned, we are also implementing the interim remediation scheme for essential fire safety works in defective apartments.

Finally, we contribute to policy development of public discourse by undertaking research. For example, we undertake the annual summary of social housing assessments. We run a research support programme that funds high-quality housing research and we support housing practitioners with training and conferences.

The Housing Agency is committed to ensuring there is financial probity, good governance structures and efficient measures in place to meet the remit and objectives of the agency. Earlier this year, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage commenced work on a periodic critical review of the Housing Agency. It is expected this review will be published in quarter 1, 2024.

I thank the Comptroller and Auditor General and his staff for their assistance and courtesy in conducting their work. I also thank the committee and Chairperson for their attention and will answer any questions they may have.