Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Government's housing policy statement, published in June 2011, clearly identifies that the priority for Government will be to meet the most acute needs of households applying for social housing support. I am determined to ensure that the social housing programme optimises the delivery of social housing and the return for the resources invested. To achieve this, it is essential that we tailor the use of available Exchequer supports to prevailing conditions and explore the full range of solutions to address housing needs.

The financial parameters within which we will be operating for the coming years rule out a return to large-scale capital funded construction programmes. The Government is committed to responding more quickly and on a larger scale to social housing support needs through a variety of mechanisms, including through increased provision of social housing. In July 2012, I announced details of a three-year funding programme of €100 million to deliver some 800 new units of voluntary and local authority owned social housing. This includes a construction programme for 185 local authority houses and 111 houses for special needs accommodation for the approved housing bodies.

Delivery of social housing will be facilitated through more flexible funding models such as the rental accommodation scheme and leasing, but the Government is also committed to developing other funding mechanisms that will increase the supply of permanent new social housing. There is also obvious potential, across a range of housing programmes, for the Government's objective of sourcing and providing suitable residential units for use as social housing to be aligned with the commercial objectives of the National Asset Management Agency.

At the end of quarter 2, 2013, some 296 properties had been delivered for social housing from NAMA's portfolio, with contracts signed in respect of a further 101 properties. This brings the overall total number of residential properties completed or committed to social housing under the initiative to date to a little under 400 properties. It will continue to be my Department's objective in 2013 to maximise the delivery of social housing from the NAMA portfolio using all of the resources available. In spite of the currently challenging circumstances the overall final outcome for social housing in 2012 is some 5,000 units. It is provisionally estimated that in the region of 5,000 units will be provided in 2013.

In March 2012, the Government approved in principle the transfer of responsibility for recipients of rent supplement with an established housing need from the Department of Social Protection to local authorities using a new housing assistance payment, HAP. My Department and the Department of Social Protection have been working closely on the legal, policy and operational issues involved in the project. It is intended that the test phase of the HAP would be carried out in early 2014 subject to the necessary housing and social welfare legislative provisions being in place, including those relating to facilitating deduction of rents at source from welfare payments. Once the test phase is complete the scheme will be extended to other local authorities.

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