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

Like many other counties around the country, Wexford has experienced a low level of construction activity, both public and private, over the last number of years. I spoke earlier about the shortage of money in the private and public sectors. Now that money is becoming available, we are trying to prioritise it for housing. A budget of €6 billion has been secured to fund housing projects, in the main, social housing, but also to open up sites for housing in general. The €1.9 billion budget for housing and homelessness is the largest we have ever seen. We recognise there is a crisis and we are trying to correct it. Like very other county, Wexford needs to gain from that and that is what we are trying to do.

The latest status report for social housing construction projects, which was published last month, contains key information on current social housing construction activity by Wexford County Council and the approved housing bodies with which it is working. It shows that 75 homes have been delivered since last year and approximately 320 additional homes are at planning, design, tender or construction stage.

Local authorities have been undertaking targeted acquisitions with a particular focus on vacant properties in order to avoid increasing pressure and competition in local property markets. Since the start of 2016, almost €17 million has been provided to Wexford County Council for that purpose. Funding of over €778,000 was provided in the period from 2014 to 2016 to return around 61 vacant social houses back into full use and a further 37 were targeted this year, although not all have been completed. Over 450 households in Wexford have been supported under the housing assistance payment scheme. It is a temporary solution but it is important that we find a home for people while we increase the supply of housing across the board, which is what we are trying to do.

Wexford County Council is in the process of finalising and submitting strategic development plans for its landbank. I look forward to its proposals for further projects to be added to its construction programme and my Department will consider them without delay when they are received. We are asking local authorities to bring forward more projects on State-owned lands through turn-key or other necessary approaches. Such plans have been submitted by many local authorities and are currently being analysed.

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