Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 44 and 62 together.

Notwithstanding the significant easing of affordability experienced in recent years, the current adverse economic circumstances have impacted on the demand for social housing and the capacity to meet this demand. The straitened resource environment has accelerated the shift away from reliance purely on programmes of construction and acquisition.

The main focus in terms of supports provided by Government will be on meeting the most acute needs, the housing support needs of those unable to provide for their accommodation from own resources. We are committed to responding more quickly and on a larger scale to these needs, including those of older people, through a variety of mechanisms, including through increased provision of social housing, continued strong support for special needs provision through the capital assistance scheme and the suite of adaptation grants for older people and people with disabilities.

This will necessitate a continuing restructuring of the social housing investment programme to allow for delivery of new social housing through more flexible funding models, in order to enable us to meet our social housing delivery commitments in the period ahead while, to the greatest extent possible, protecting programmes targeting special needs. The social housing leasing initiative and, in particular, the rental accommodation scheme will each play their part as long-term mainstream social housing supports.

The Government is also committed to developing other funding mechanisms that will increase the supply of permanent new social housing. Such mechanisms will include options to purchase, build to lease, and the sourcing of loan finance by approved housing bodies, including from the Housing Finance Agency, for construction and acquisition.

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