Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)
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Question 2: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the number of leasing initiative properties in respect of which full funding approval has been issued that are unsold affordable dwellings; the number of same that are privately owned leased properties; if the title in relation to unsold leased affordable dwellings rests with the local authorities or with another entity; the average leasing cost of affordable homes; the person who has to pay and the location of payment; the average lease cost per month per unit size excluding unsold affordable dwellings; the number of affordable homes and privately leased properties obtained by individual local authorities as part of the leasing initiative that are now occupied; if the utilisation of unsold affordable dwellings in this manner indicates the end of the affordable housing scheme in its current format; the amount of the €20 million allocated for the leasing initiative in 2009 that has been drawn down; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2661/10]

Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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At the end of 2009, 1,933 units had been sourced and approved under the social housing leasing initiative. Some 1,413 units - 1,331 unsold affordable units and 82 units sourced from the private sector - had received full approval by that date. A further 520 private units had been given provisional approval. Some 437 of the fully approved units are considered to be operational, as signed lease agreements are in place. They are either occupied or are in the course of occupation. Given that I did not introduce the initiative until February 2009, this represents significant progress. It shows that the initiative, even at this early stage, is starting to deliver. Under current arrangements, unsold affordable units are leased to approved housing bodies for a period of five years. During this period, the properties are used to accommodate households that are eligible for social housing support. The local authority retains ownership of the units throughout the lease period. The Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government recoups to each local authority the interest payments liable in respect of the loans taken by the authority to fund affordable properties in the first instance.

The average monthly cost for each affordable unit is €365. This compares to an average monthly cost of €456 for all other lease projects. A breakdown of the cost by unit size is not available. A total of €642,000 was spent under the leasing initiative in 2009. The full-year cost of the fully approved units is approximately €12 million. We will not set targets for additional delivery, in so far as affordable housing in general is concerned, this year. We will have regard to developments in the housing market. The emphasis will be on continuing to make progress with measures to ensure the most effective deployment of already delivered but unsold affordable homes. I refer to their use for social housing purposes, for example. The ultimate intention is that the bulk of the affordable units transferred to the social housing leasing initiative will be offered for sale in due course, either to social tenants or under affordable housing arrangements. The last time this issue was raised on Question Time, Deputy Ciarán Lynch asked for a breakdown of the cost of affordable units, as opposed to private units. I apologise for the failure to send that information on to him. It is included in today's response.

Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)
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What is the average cost per unit of the non-affordable units?

Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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The average cost of such units is €456 per month.

Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)
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I thank the Minister of State for his reply. It seems that this initiative is taking on a life of its own. When the Minister of State announced in this Chamber that a long-term leasing programme was to be introduced, Deputies understood that it involved privately owned developments. Given that a significant sum of money was involved - we were told that €20 million a year would be spent over a 20-year period - questions were asked about whether this represented a bail-out for developers. We were told that the local authorities would hand back these properties to developers in 20 years' time. It now appears that over two thirds of these properties are affordable homes that are currently vacant. I understand that local authorities have 3,000 vacant affordable homes that they cannot sell. Do I understand correctly that just 82 of the approximately 1,500 properties that have been approved for leasing have come from the private sector? Has the Minister of State met the target that was set for the acquisition of privately owned properties for leasing? The figures I have mentioned do not indicate that is the case. Can the Minister of State explain why this initiative is becoming predominantly based on affordable homes?

Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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This scheme, which was introduced in February 2009, was extended to voluntary bodies in September 2009. It was appropriate that many local authorities concentrated on dealing with their own unsold affordable stock during the first period of the scheme, as we did not want national stock to be sitting idle while people remained on the social housing lists. We will have to accept that local authorities prioritised that area. There is a natural lead-in to any new scheme - everything does not take off immediately. It is worth mentioning that we were within a small number of units of meeting the target of 2,000 that was set for 2009. In addition, hundreds of applications are being processed at present.

I do not accept that it is inappropriate for affordable houses to be used as part of the long-term leasing scheme. It is appropriate to include in the scheme properties in which public money has been invested. Approximately 1,300 such units are available, which is not that many. As of October 2009, local authorities estimated that they had 3,100 affordable homes on hand. Some 1,300 of those homes have been approved by the Department for temporary use as social housing under the leasing programme, with a further 800 in the process of being sold. According to the local authorities, fewer than 1,000 available units are on their hands at present. It is worth recording that 1,300 houses were sold under the affordable housing scheme in 2009. There continues to be a significant take-up of the scheme.

Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)
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The Minister of State's response suggested that there is no clear strategy for dealing with two issues - the number of vacant houses throughout the country and the specific problem of affordable housing. Can the Minister of State tell the House how many vacant private properties there are in the State? I am not sure if he has the figures to hand. I will understand if he does not. It has been suggested that the accurate figure is anything between 50,000 and 300,000. Can the Minister of State give the Chamber any audit figures in response to that?

The difficulty with the affordable homes scheme is that the prices were set at the height of the property bubble. The properties that came on to the market last year had prices that were agreed two years earlier. Does the Minister of State agree that the fundamental difficulty with these properties is their price? If they are to be sold, I suggest that he should consider arranging for the prices to be dropped to reflect the current reality of the market. Everyone in this Chamber understood that the leasing initiative was put in place to acquire private properties for long-term leasing purposes. I will not comment on whether we agree with the politics behind that. If this scheme is to be opened up to affordable housing, so be it. When the scheme was announced, the target of 2,000 properties related to privately owned properties. How many of the properties that have been acquired are privately owned?

Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy has asked three questions. I have already said that 1,331 affordable units have been approved under the social housing leasing initiative. The local authorities and the voluntary bodies have acquired 289 and 313 private properties, respectively. As I have said, applications in respect of hundreds of other private properties are being processed at present. The scheme has had some success in the short period since it was established.

The Deputy also asked about vacant houses. I accept that all types of figures have been cited in the public media recently. We understand, on the basis of information compiled on a professional basis by our researchers, that the normal number of empty dwellings was exceeded by between 122,000 and 147,000 at the end of 2009. Deputies will appreciate that there are always houses that someone has bought but not yet moved into, for example. Such vacancies are short-term, by and large. Our figures are usually pretty accurate. I appreciate that people on the academic side have said there are 300,000 vacant houses. The report prepared for us by DKM provided estimates of total stocks of empty properties of between 228,000 and 253,000. The number of houses that are available for use is in region of 122,000.