Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

A shortage of supply is at the heart of the current challenges in the housing sector and the Government is addressing this on a number of fronts. The Government’s Construction 2020 strategy, published last year, is aimed at addressing issues in the property and construction sectors and ensuring any bottlenecks that might impede the sector in meeting residential and non-residential demand are addressed. My Department and a range of other Departments and agencies are actively implementing the range of commitments set out in the strategy. In addition, NAMA is aiming to deliver a target of 20,000 residential units before the end of 2020, with 90% of these units to be in the greater Dublin area.

The Social Housing Strategy 2020setsout clear, measurable actions and targets to increase the supply of social housing, reform delivery arrangements and meet the housing needs of all households on the social housing list. Social housing has been prioritised by this Government and over €1.7 billion in Exchequer and local authority self funding was allocated to the social housing strategy between the 2015 and 2016 budgets, to support the provision of more than 33,000 units. The Government’s capital plan goes beyond 2016 and commits €2.9 billion in capital funding towards social housing out to 2021.

In April 2015, we announced provisional funding allocations totalling €1.5 billion for all local authorities to meet an ambitious delivery target of 22,882 social housing units out to 2017. To date, €493 million has been allocated for the construction and acquisition of 2,900 units. Further project approvals will be announced in the near future. Establishing yet another body to deal with housing is neither necessary nor appropriate, particularly given the time and resources that would need to be diverted to such an endeavour.

Therefore, I do not believe the establishment of yet another body to deal with housing is either necessary or appropriate, particularly given the time involved and the resources that would need to be diverted into such an endeavour. We require delivery on the ground. The funding has been allocated and the targets have been set. The bars have been set high. We need to see local authorities and approved housing bodies delivering with the funds that have been allocated. We also need to see the private sector contributing in a real way to the increase in supply that is so badly needed, as we all know.

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