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

Of course, I have responsibility; I am the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government. This is why I meet with local authorities and why we provided additional money to them for next year to provide more homes. A total of 10,000 more units will come into the stock of social housing next year because of commitments we made in the budget for next year. The largest amount of money an Irish Government has ever spent in a single year on housing will be spent next year. This is a very important commitment. Delivery is key. I was in Fingal recently and we went through delivery and what Fingal County Council is going to achieve. My Department and I recently met with the other local authorities to talk about delivery and not just for people in emergency accommodation but the wider delivery targets.

If we look at the different local authorities, we can see that in that figure of just over 10,000, Dublin City Council will deliver over 1,000 homes on the build side, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council about 180, Fingal County Council more than 400 and South Dublin County Council just under 400. That is on the build side alone. In terms of acquisitions and leasing of real homes which people will move into and have security in, these will be added to by more than 1,000.

Yes, we have to use HAP and the private rental sector because if we did not, those people would be out on the streets. Until we have more homes built, we will use HAP to support them. However, in 2020 and 2021 we will be supporting more people into new homes in the stock of social housing than we will be supporting through HAP in the private rental market. That commitment continues through Project Ireland 2040 out to 2027.

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