Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Fianna Fail)
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I am thankful to the Acting Chairman for allowing me to raise this serious question in the House tonight and I am pleased that the Minister, Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív will be replying. He had occasion to visit this housing estate with me a year ago, I believe, in Ballylynch, Carrick-on-Suir. It is a very old housing estate, more than 30 years in existence, with a large number of houses. The particular scheme as proposed by the Carrick-on-Suir Town Council has been actively supported by the town manager, town clerk and indeed all the local authority members. The present mayor of the town is pushing it as hard as she can.

There was much confusion and disappointment as regards this regeneration proposal. It is only at phase 2 of what will obviously be a long-running regeneration development in different stages. This is a wonderful community of hard working people. The actual phase I am talking about comprises 72 houses, more than 40 of which are in private ownership. I commend the occupants who had the vision and the courage to get their mortgages to buy those houses from the local authority, but herein lies the problem, I believe, although the Minister might say, otherwise.

Several reports were sent to the Department in February this year and there was a request for amendments to the proposal in April. A final report was made to the Department in June and nothing has been heard from it sense. I am in touch on a constant basis with my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Mansergh, lobbying the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Finneran and his officials on this issue. Obviously, we need to know what allocation we are going to get, so that we may proceed on that basis. A hard working committee is trying to oversee the regeneration programme on local authority houses, but it will be difficult to do if, for example, houses Nos. 2 and 3 are in private ownership, houses Nos. 4 and 5 are publicly owned and houses Nos. 6 and 7 are again private. Regardless of that, we need to get something moving because people are losing their patience and becoming very frustrated at the length of time it is taking to get this scheme off the ground.

It is a RAPID area, also, and as the Minister knows there is a new playground where he scored a goal on me during his visit. I was not able to do much against the ferocity of that ball. The light was fading, he took a drop kick at the goal and it was in the back of the net before I saw it. Hopefully, he can encourage the Minister of State, Deputy Finneran and his other colleagues to move this situation forward and try to have the funding allocated. As I have said, this will only be the first of a number of phases. As the old adage says, tosach maith leath na hoibre, but the local officials need clarification as regards the status of their proposals. We are told by the Department that it is with the Minister of State, awaiting his signature. We need to have the project signed off, and it would be a wonderful Christmas present, in the event, to allow the people to have a good start in the new year and to sort out their issues as regards the private versus public question. I do not mean this in any adversarial way. It is a question of sorting out the regeneration scheme which is badly needed, so that those families can live in dignity, having put a vote of confidence in their estate. It would be a pity when people are so well motivated as regards buying their homes that anything might stymie such a badly needed and well-designed project, which deserves to go ahead.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I should like to thank the Deputy for raising the question. In fact I have visited Ballylynch twice and fully understand the desire of the Deputy that this issue of regeneration should be proceeded with. I hope I get to visit Ballylynch a third time, when perhaps I can get a second goal against him.

This Government's commitment to social housing takes a broad approach to supporting the development of sustainable communities. A crucial element of this approach is our commitment to supporting the development of sustainable communities in existing local authority estates through various improvement and regeneration initiatives. Regeneration, in particular, is focused on addressing the issues of social, educational and economic disadvantage experienced in some of the most challenging areas of the country.

The social housing improvement works programme spans a range of Exchequer funded and local authority funded programmes and initiatives designed to maintain and improve the local authority housing stock. Over the past number of years, the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government has significantly increased its investment in this area through support for estate-wide remedial works, programmes where specific deficits are to be addressed - for example, from a health and safety or energy efficiency perspective - and for an ambitious national programme of regeneration projects. For all projects, with the exception of large regeneration projects, the Department has required a contribution from the local authority's own resources.

The remedial works programme provides support for local authorities to significantly improve run-down estates by improving the layout, addressing issues of anti-social behaviour, improving the housing fabric, and where possible, addressing issues of social exclusion. This programme has been expanding since it commenced in the 1980s and is a critical element of the overall improvement works programme. It is well recognised that remedial works projects are significantly more labour intensive than new construction projects, and as such also offer opportunities to stimulate local employment in some of the most disadvantaged areas of the country.

In 2009, the Department has continued to support some 55 remedial work projects around the country from an allocation of €53 million. A further €35 million of funding will be required in future years to complete these projects and will obviously have first call on the available funding. In addition, a further 22 projects were identified for inclusion in the programme for the period 2010-12, with a total estimated cost over the three years of €50 million. A number of these projects are now at funding approval stage and, in light of the resources available to the Minister for 2010, he is now considering the extent to which these can be supported next year.

This brings me to the project raised by Deputy Mattie McGrath - the Ballylynch estate in Carrick on Suir, County Tipperary, which is one of the projects mentioned as being considered in the context of available funding for 2010. The Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government has already supported a pilot project of ten units in the Ballylynch estate. The next phase of the project involves both new build and remedial elements. In general, 75% of the funding for remedial schemes is available from the Department, with 25% being provided by the local authority from its own internal capital receipts.

Once again, I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. Ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghlacadh leis an Teachta as ucht an scéal seo a thógáil sa Dáil. Tá meas ar leith agam ar an bpobal áirithe i Ballylynch. Is ceantar RAPID é. Ba mhaith liom a dheimhniú uair amháin eile go bhfuil tacaíocht ginearálta ar fáil ón Rialtas le haghaidh aththógáil na n-eastát seo.