Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy knows, Housing for All is our plan to increase the supply of housing to get to an average of 33,000 homes per year over the next decade. Exchequer funding of more than €4 billion is available in 2022 to deliver the increased number of new social and affordable homes. Overall expenditure on the housing programme will not be determined, as the Deputy knows, until the end of the year. Typically, quarter 4 sees the highest level of capital expenditure as my Department recoups claims submitted by local authorities.

During 2022, there is no question but that the construction sector has been impacted by construction product inflation and some supply chain issues. This resulted in delays to a number of housing projects, which are back on track. There were consequential delays in the submission of claims from local authorities, especially post the outbreak of war in Ukraine where there were supply chain issues. However, there has been a strong improvement in the delivery environment, supported by measures introduced by this Government to address material inflation and energy costs through the introduction of the inflation supply chain delay co-operation framework that the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath, brought forward. We are now looking at very strong delivery in the last four months of this year, which will see an acceleration in the capital payments made by my Department.

Budget 2023, as the Deputy will have seen yesterday, again provides for record levels of investment by the Government to support housing delivery. Through Housing for All, since it is a multi-annual plan, local authorities know that funding is in the base and that they have that funding each year. There will also be more than €4 billion in Exchequer funding available for delivery of capital and current projects in 2023. I can tell the Deputy there were delays, particularly in March, April and May when there were supply chain issues. Most reasonable people will understand that is a reality of the world we are living in at present. There has a been very strong pick-up, however, and we expect strong completions in quarter 4. We are engaging on a regular basis, through my own teams, with the local authorities. My ministerial colleagues and I also engage directly with local authorities on that.

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