Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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2. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the number of unfinished estates; if he will provide a breakdown of the stage of completion that these are at; the estates that are categorised as unfinished; the timeframe for completion of outstanding work in those estates classified as unfinished estates; and if he will make extra funding available to local authorities to assist in their management of those estates. [20640/13]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I am chairing the national co-ordination committee on unfinished housing developments to oversee implementation of the report of the advisory group on unfinished housing developments, together with the Government's response to the recommendations. The committee includes representatives from the Irish Banking Federation, local authorities, Housing and Sustainable Communities Limited, NAMA and the construction sector. Real progress is being made with regard to the public safety works required to improve the living conditions of existing residents on some unfinished estates, and the committee meets regularly to oversee this effort.

The 2012 national housing development survey, published by the Department in November 2012, revealed steady quantifiable progress in tackling the issue of unfinished housing developments. A renewed focus by all stakeholders, including local authorities, developers, lenders and local residents, is working and communities are benefitting. Since the survey was first commenced in 2010, there has been a 37% decrease in the number of unfinished developments and a 27% decrease in the number of vacant units. In 2012, almost 300 housing developments were resolved. Further details of this survey, including details of the stage of completion of unfinished developments throughout the country, can be found on the Department's website, www.environ.ie. The survey identified a further 1,770 developments remaining unfinished. While this is a substantial reduction on the 2,874 developments identified in the 2010 survey, it also indicates the scale of the challenge remaining. The focus of the Government's actions is directed at resolving these developments, of which approximately 1,100 are in a seriously problematic condition.

The Department launched a public safety initiative in March 2011, which provided funding to address immediate public safety issues. The types of works approved to date under the public safety initiative include fencing off unsecured and hazardous areas, capping pipes, installing street lighting and other works to secure sites. Under the public safety initiative, the Department has made allocations totalling approximately €3.877 million to 21 local authorities from the funding made available, and to date a total of €2.515 million has been drawn down by local authorities.

Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister of State for her reply. She mentioned the progress. A report was done in June 2011 and I admit the Government inherited a difficult situation with regard to unfinished estates dotted throughout the country, including my county of Laois which has 70 unfinished estates. I have also studied the progress report published in July 2012. I am anxious to find out where we are today with regard to these matters. The 2011 report found 23,250 complete but vacant houses and another 9,976 almost complete but vacant houses. This is a total of more than 33,000 houses in 1,655 developments with works outstanding in categories 2, 3 and 4. At the time, the NAMA share was listed in the report as 3,200 homes possibly available for social housing use.

Two years on, however, how many of those 3,200 houses have been brought into use?

The report mentioned site resolution plans for the 1,650 estates, but how many of those are in place for category three and category four estates? Some 636 estates were subject to legal enforcement last June, 44 of which were in County Laois. There were three in Offaly and seven in Kildare.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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I am sorry Deputy but we are running out time.

Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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I am seeking answers to those specific questions. Does the Minister agree on the need for legislation? We have 33,000 empty houses in unfinished estates, while 100,000 family units are on the housing waiting list. Can we not put legislation in place to make a match between them? There is a precedent with the Land Commission whereby unused land was bought by the State and leased out to people who eventually bought out the holdings. Thus a match was made between those who needed land and land that was unused or under-used.

In this case we have houses that are not being used, while we have an accommodation crisis. Does the Minister agree that due to the slow progress, legislation is required to use such accommodation for social and affordable housing?

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I am not sure we need legislation, but we need action which is what we are doing on the committee. To answer the Deputy's question, NAMA issued some information yesterday. There are 110 houses on which contracts have been agreed with regard to NAMA units. A special purpose vehicle has been established which is speeding up the process. We hope we will get about 500 over the line this year but that will depend on how fast the process can be moved. The special purpose vehicle is a means whereby NAMA can gather units that are deemed suitable by local authorities into this financial vehicle, so that they will then be available for the local authorities and voluntary housing sectors to take them over. We are therefore expecting progress. I would like to see it happening faster because it has been very slow, particularly in the early stages. However, we are getting some traction now, which is to be welcomed.

With regard to site resolution plans, the intention is that by the next meeting of the unfinished housing developments committee we will have such plans in place for nearly all the estates. We will then be at a point where we can make a decision on the future of estates where nobody is living and where, in some cases, houses are only half built. We will have a plan in place to finish the others, be they under receivers, NAMA, local authorities or private ownership. The intention is to move this process on as quickly as possible. We have made quite good progress in the last year.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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We must move on to Question No. 3.

Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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May I ask a supplementary question?

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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No. I am sorry but we are out of time. I am calling Question No. 3 in the name of Deputy Joan Collins. There are only four minutes after the first question, giving a total of six minutes. Therefore the longer a Deputy takes for a supplementary the less time is left.