Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy will be aware, the NAMA chairman and CEO appeared at the Oireachtas Committee on Housing and Homelessness on Thursday, 12 May. NAMA provided a presentation for the committee which outlined, among other useful information, the progress on its residential funding programme. The presentation is available on the Oireachtas and NAMA websites. Specifically, NAMA's key residential delivery figures are as follows:

- 2,768 units have been completed since early 2014;

- I am advised that, of the 20,000 units NAMA plans to fund by 2020, subject to commercial viability, 2,500 have been scheduled for delivery in the period from October 2015, when the target was announced, to the end of 2016 - intensive planning and other preparatory work under way will result in a significant increase in the number of completed units in 2017 and later years;

- at present, 3,096 units are under construction;

- planning permission has been granted for a further 5,176 units, while a planning application has been lodged for a further 5,066 units;

- planning applications are expected to be lodged within the next year for an additional 6,627 units.

Therefore, it is clear that NAMA has a strong residential development pipeline of sites securing its loans. It has an active strategy for every acre of land under its control and I expect the agency to continue to progress towards its publicly stated target of delivering 20,000 units by the end of 2020 through working with key stakeholders to advance such sites through the planning and development phases. I note that the NAMA chairman stated at the Committee on Housing and Homelessness that the plan to deliver 20,000 new units was ambitious and challenging, but NAMA will carry it out in a manner consistent with its mandate. It is clear that the progress highlighted to date and the viable pipeline for future delivery justify NAMA's confidence in this regard.

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