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

I thank the Deputy for the question.

Details on the 2018 social housing output against target, broken down by local authority area, have just been published on the statistics page of my Department's website, honouring the commitment I made last year to publish annual targets and full delivery details.They should have been published this morning. I published the high-level targets last week. The reason for the delay was that we were waiting for the chairperson of a new task force we are establishing in Galway for housing delivery to confirm he or she would take on the role. The person confirmed only this morning. On confirmation, I was able to publish the detailed reports, in addition to the new measure we are taking in Galway city and county.

Overall, a very strong performance was achieved by comparison with the national target for the year. Regarding new-build activity in 2018, some 4,251 additional social homes were delivered across the 31 local authority areas. This included delivery under a range of schemes, either led directly by local authorities or in partnership with approved housing bodies. Of the 4,251 new homes provided, 2,022 were delivered by local authorities, 1,388 were delivered by approved housing bodies and 841 came through Part V agreements. Overall, the new-build social housing delivery last year, while marginally below target, was up 85% on 2017, and was more than eight times higher than in 2015, the year before Rebuilding Ireland was introduced.

My Department and I are committed to the accelerated delivery of all social housing projects and will continue to work with all local authorities and approved housing bodies to ensure that quality and value for money projects are delivered efficiently and effectively. This is evident from the significant increase in new-build social housing activity in 2018 and the further significant increase targeted for this year.

I apologise for the Deputy not having the table in front of her. It should be published now. It shows each local authority area and each of the delivery streams in each local authority. It shows performance against the targets I set in January of last year in terms of local authority build, approved housing authority build, Part V developments, leasing, acquisition, and HAP and RAS. People can see the exact breakdown in respect of the 27,000 new households that were supported last year by the taxpayer.

See this speech in context