Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for raising the important issue. They miss the point. Yesterday's announcement is but one strand of the Government's response under the social housing strategy. The figures quoted are the direct builds by local authorities proposed by the same local authorities through the Department. They have received the green light but it is only the first phase of direct building. I expect the support of all Deputies in all of those projects. The figures quoted do not take account of forthcoming proposals under the capital assistance scheme, CAS, under which voluntary housing bodies will provide a number of units, nor do they take account of the number of voids, vacant and boarded-up local authority units for which additional funding has been provided. Over 2,000 units have been turned around and put back into beneficial use over the past year. Further funding for 1,000 additional units will be provided to put them back into beneficial use. It does not take account of the number of acquisition units, where local authorities from all over the country propose to the Department to buy units from the market at good value for money. The announcement yesterday does not include that but the Deputies chose to ignore this fact. Nor do they allow for the rental accommodation scheme or the housing assistance payment schemes that are up and running in local authorities around the country.

The HAP scheme has now been expanded into a further 12 local authorities. The social housing strategy is targeted at providing over 110,000 social housing units through the delivery of 35,000 new social housing units and meeting the housing needs of some 75,000 households through the HAP and rental accommodation schemes. In total, €3.8 billion is being ring-fenced for the strategy. This marks a fresh strategy in terms of the provision of social housing. I find it hard to take lectures from those opposite, especially those in Fianna Fáil. It abdicated its responsibility in terms of direct build social housing in local authorities for over a decade. Some 15,000 units were built in the previous four years.

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