Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy's general question was not specific to Louth but I will certainly deal with Louth as well. Rebuilding Ireland contains a number of integrated actions to underpin active land supply management for the delivery of housing. Initially, this involves identifying and mapping sites in local authority and public ownership, with appropriate lands to be master-planned to deliver increased mixed tenure housing, including social and more affordable homes, to meet demand. Our aim is to use publicly-owned land banks much more strategically than we did in the past. The mixed tenure approach allows for risk sharing and far quicker delivery of homes on the site as a whole. Most important, mixed tenure developments are about meeting the housing need of those on the housing list as well as those who do not come under the income thresholds in terms of qualifying for social housing support but still have difficulty meeting the cost of their accommodation.

With regard to the mapping project specifically, the Housing Agency, in close consultation with my Department and local authorities, including Louth, has already commenced the mapping of approximately 700 sites in local authority ownership and those held by the agency under the land aggregation scheme, showing their location, size, boundaries and other information. The data that was compiled did not exist when the Deputy initially asked the question. This mapping exercise will form part of the broader national land supply management strategy as committed to under action 3.5 of Rebuilding Ireland, which is being developed within the context of the national planning framework, Ireland 2040. We expect to be in a position to publish a map of some 700 local authority and land aggregation scheme sites, together with lands zoned for residential development, in the coming weeks. This map will be updated regularly over time to ensure the best possible information is publicly available.

With regard to funding providing for housing on local authority-owned lands, under Rebuilding Ireland, a highly ambitious programme of 47,000 social housing homes will be delivered by 2021, with funding of €5.35 billion. My Department engages on an ongoing basis with all local authorities, including Louth, Meath and others in the greater Dublin region, to consider proposals for the delivery of their social housing programmes. The Minister, Deputy Coveney, and I have met directly with local authority chief executives and elected members, assuring them that funding is available to advance new projects and to urge the swiftest possible progress on the overall building programmes. The Minister and I were in Louth and met the chief executive of that council, as well as councillors, stressing the need to bring forward a pipeline of projects.

Already a substantial pipeline of new social housing construction projects has been created, reversing the decline of previous years, when local authorities and approved housing bodies had seen much reduced activity in the area. In the Deputy's own county of Louth, for example, there are now 26 projects. Louth County Council and various approved housing bodies will deliver 348 homes at various stages of the construction project life cycle. My Department recently published a full list of social housing construction projects, involving 8,430 homes in total across 504 projects. They are available on the website and I have the list for Louth here. I can give it to the Deputy, as it lists 26 projects and the various stages at which they are. We are keen that all projects should be advanced as quickly as possible and I have assured local authorities that funding is available for well-planned, quality projects that fully support efforts in this regard.

At its heart, the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan on Housing and Homelessness is about increasing and accelerating housing delivery across all tenures to meet housing needs. The active pursuit of housing provision on State lands, including local authority land, is an important part of delivering on the overall ambition. A vital first step is to identify and map the sites in local authority and public ownership with appropriate lands to be master-planned to deliver increased mixed tenure housing, including social and more affordable homes to meet demand. That work is well under way and I expect detailed mapping of local authority housing lands to be completed by the end of March.

I spoke directly with the Deputy's housing officials in Louth, along with councillors, to help bring this forward and make suggestions for various sites. We are in the business of doing that and they will bring forward initiatives based on the various sites they own. Approximately 55 acres of land belong to Louth County Council and we have asked it to bring forward a pipeline of projects with that. There are 26 in play now and we are open to discussing more on that, including the various lands referred to by the Deputy. We have been very clear with Louth County Council and we want more development. We are willing to work on that.

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