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

We will be starting a debate on social housing after these questions. My Department, the Housing Agency and NAMA continue to work together with housing authorities and approved housing bodies in identifying suitable NAMA housing units and bringing them into social housing use. By the end of December 2013, of the 4,374 units identified by NAMA as being potentially suitable, 2,055 units have been confirmed by local authorities as being suitable for social housing. Completed housing unit transfers from the NAMA loan portfolio stood at 492, with a further 104 units contracted and where completion work was ongoing. This brought the overall total delivery of social housing from NAMA sourced units to 596 units, completed or contracted, since the process began. Some 367 of these units were delivered in 2013 alone.

Progress is ongoing and I expect these numbers to increase significantly in 2014. Further information on the delivery of NAMA sourced units, including a full breakdown by county, is available on the Housing Agency's website. Units acquired from NAMA are brought into social housing use by way of a number of existing delivery mechanisms including the social housing investment programme, the capital acquisition scheme and the social housing leasing initiative. These are existing funding mechanisms and my Department does not distinguish the financing of NAMA-sourced units from other sources of social housing supply. To the end of February 2014, the social housing leasing initiative, including NAMA-sourced units, has delivered 4,736 units for social housing use and expended some €66.4 million in leasing costs since its introduction in 2009. The current average per-unit cost of social housing leasing initiative units, including over 400 NAMA-sourced units, is just under €505 per month.

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