Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Government's Rebuilding Ireland action plan for housing and homelessness is focused on increasing housing supply across all tenures. I believe this is the key to tackling the housing challenge in a sustainable way. The aim is to achieve total housing output of at least 25,000 homes per year by 2020 and all of the available indicators point to a significant increase in activity towards that target. Good progress is also being made in delivering social housing units through build, refurbishment, acquisition and leasing, alongside an accelerated roll-out of the housing assistance payment scheme to meet the needs of some 80,000 households. This activity is being supported through a significantly increased investment programme of €5.35 billion.

While still at an early stage of implementation, there is already strong evidence that the focus on increasing and accelerating social housing delivery is yielding results.  In 2016, the housing needs of over 19,000 households were met through a range of social housing programmes, supported by expenditure of over €935 million.  A further €1.3 billion has been provided in 2017 to support the accelerated delivery of social housing and the achievement of the 2017 target to meet the housing needs of over 21,000 households.  

The need for the earliest possible delivery of social housing is understood by all concerned and this is reflected in the expansion of the social housing construction programme across the 31 local authority areas, by both local authorities and approved housing bodies. There has been an escalation in the social housing build programme and more projects are being added on an ongoing basis. I have, of course, also initiated a focused review of Rebuilding Ireland which I will be aiming to conclude in September to identify what further measures may be necessary to build on the progress already made and underpin momentum in the months and years ahead.

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