Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree that this is the big issue for me to deal with. It is great that we are talking about these issues, rather than water. While water is a difficult political issue to deal with in some ways, as far as I am concerned, housing is where it is at in terms of changing people's lives. That is why I welcome the fact that housing has been the dominant issue in these questions. All local authorities, including Dublin City Council, already have social housing delivery targets set out to the end of 2017. The former Minister, Deputy Kelly, put that in place. It was a very ambitious plan at the time and we are building on it now. The targets in question were issued to my Department in April of last year and are available on my Department's website.

In the case of Dublin City Council, the target is 3,347 additional units to be delivered through build, buying, refurbishment and leasing programmes, supported by an allocation of almost €300 million. Funding is recouped to the local authority once approved expenditure on programmes takes place. The council submits recoupment claims on an ongoing basis.

With the publication of Rebuilding Ireland: an Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, the Government has secured additional funding for social housing delivery and has set increased national-level targets. Accordingly, increased targets and funding will be allocated to all local authorities. It is important that these are based on the 2016 summary of social housing assessments, and this part of the plan will be done before the end of the year. These assessments are now well advanced and will provide updated figures of national and local housing need. The use of the latest social housing assessments will ensure that new social housing targets and funding are designed in line with housing need. I expect to be advising local authorities of their new targets early in 2017. In the meantime, my Department continues to engage with all local authorities, including Dublin City Council, to expedite social housing delivery, including additional projects that would take local authorities beyond their 2015 targets.

The funding that will be provided to Dublin City Council to support its delivery of social housing will be commensurate with the target set and drawn from the range of sources and programmes set out in pillar two of Rebuilding Ireland, including capital and current funding programmes.

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