Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

The Government has asked local authorities to draw up action plans to bring certainty to the area. The action plans are based on local needs. There is certainty in the funding which is now being provided. With five year capital envelopes, we can tell them how much their funding will be. Last week, €922 million was allocated for social housing in 2005. The local authorities have been told to push ahead because they now know how much funding will be available for this year and the years after. In the past some local authorities were good and some bad. However, even the bad ones would use the excuse of uncertainty regarding funding. This year €2 billion has been allocated.

The Deputy quoted from the Housing Financing Authority's report. While I am not sure in which context, it mainly refers to affordable housing. Until recently, all affordable houses were financed through the local authority system and Housing Finance Authority loans. Now, thankfully, other financial institutions are entering the market. I welcome this as we may not need to borrow so much from the Housing Finance Authority in the future. The €2 billion allocation is an extraordinary figure and we expect construction to begin on 6,000 houses, meeting the needs of 13,000 people on housing waiting lists.

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