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

I thank the Deputy for the question. On 29 June, I invited applications under the serviced sites fund from 11 local authorities to support the provision of key enabling infrastructure on their land, to get their sites ready for the delivery of affordable housing. The call and funding is being targeted initially at these 11 local authority areas where it has been identified that there is a more pressing need for affordable housing, and where there are significant publicly-owned sites that could he used for affordable housing. These are the local authorities in Dublin as well as Cork, Galway City, Meath, Kildare, Louth and Wicklow.

The call closed on 30 August and the 15 proposals submitted by nine local authorities are currently being assessed by my Department. I expect to be in a position to make the initial awards of funding next month.

The Exchequer provision under the fund totals €75 million over the four years to 2021. When local authority co-funding is included, an overall minimum investment of €100 million will be available under the fund to offset the costs of providing both on-site and off-site enabling infrastructure for sites in order for them to be brought into use for affordable housing.

A total of €15 million Exchequer funding has been allocated for 2018, to which the local authority minimum contribution of €5 million will be added. This should enable the provision of infrastructure for around 500 affordable homes, based on a maximum level of €40,000 infrastructure investment per home.

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