Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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31. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will deliver the target of 17,000 social housing units in 2016, as set out in the social housing output report published in January 2016, the categories under which he will deliver them, and the quantity to be delivered. [11883/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Housing is a key priority for this Government and, as outlined in the programme for a partnership Government, I will prepare an action plan for housing within the Government's first 100 days, working with other Government colleagues. We hope to do this by the end of July or the middle of August. The action plan will build on the considerable work already carried out or under way, and will draw on the important work of the special Oireachtas Committee on Housing and Homelessness. It will include actions to expedite and boost the supply of all types of housing, including social housing, in the immediate, medium and longer terms. While it is important to boost housing supply for all, the action plan will focus in particular on those experiencing the most difficulty in accessing the housing and rental market at the moment.

The targets in respect of social housing delivery have been set for each local authority out to 2017. The target for 2016 is 17,000 units, and I am committed to meeting that target and my ambition is to exceed it if possible. I have asked all local authority chief executives for their ideas and proposals to expedite delivery of social housing this year. In respect of capital programmes, 1,500 units are targeted for delivery through construction and acquisition by local authorities and approved housing bodies, AHBs. Local authorities will also return a further 1,500 voids to productive use. Under the social housing current expenditure programme, 3,000 units are to be delivered through the acquisition, leasing or construction of houses and apartments by local authorities and AHBs. In addition, 1,000 units will be delivered under the rental accommodation scheme, with 10,000 households being assisted under the housing assistance payment scheme.

Given that Deputy Alan Kelly put down the question, I wish to state for the record that the former Minister did a lot to respond to a very difficult housing need in the past two years and has put foundations in place upon which I can build. It would be appropriate to recognise that today.

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I thank the Minister for his reply and wish him and the Minister of State well in their challenging roles.

Does the Minister expect that he will be able to deliver the target of 17,000 social housing units for 2016? I think he said that he hoped to deliver more. Will an ongoing monitoring process be put in place over the rest of the year to ensure that local authorities deliver in accordance with the number of units to which they are committed?

The Minister has said in public comment that he is looking at ways of speeding up the delivery of social housing. Will he give us some information on his thoughts on that? In what way will he be able to speed up the delivery?

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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First of all, we will monitor. There is a commitment in the programme for Government to do that in a very transparent way by reporting on progress on a quarterly basis. There will be individual plans and targets set for each local authority in the country. Obviously the most pressure will be on the four Dublin local authorities, the two in Cork and those in Limerick, Galway and Waterford, but other urban centres as well. There is a housing emergency in these cities, particularly in Dublin, and it needs an appropriate response. In terms of the kind of fast-tracking mechanisms that I am talking about, we are looking at changing the Part VIII regulation to allow for Part VIII decisions to be made earlier while keeping elected representative involvement in decision making but perhaps shortening the public consultation period to allow decisions to be made. We are also looking at the tendering process, the procurement process, the contract negotiations and final sign-off between my Department and local authorities who have to work together before a project can pass through four stages before the final sign-off. We are looking at shortening that period considerably while still making sure the appropriate checks are in place.

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I understand that 420 extra staff have been recruited to local authorities to ensure that house delivery is speeded up. Is the Minister getting reports back on how those 420 people are improving the situation? We hear of local authority houses being left vacant for much longer periods of time in some local authorities than others and some local authorities being much more proactive in the delivery of social housing units. Is that being monitored?

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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What I have said to chief executives is that if they have a human resource or people power issue that is preventing them from getting on with meeting the targets that we need to set for the new ambition, I need to know about it, and we will speak to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to see if we can get them the people they need. Certainly, from my Department's perspective, we may well need to take on more people in specialist areas so that we can send down teams of engineers, quantity surveyors, designers and architects to sign off on drawings and costings, as opposed to having letters going back and forth, which may take months. The Deputy will have experience of this from the Department of Education and Skills, where drawings come back from school projects, amendments are made, the drawings are sent back, there are further amendments, and it goes on and on. If there is a crisis or a safety issue and the school needs to be built quickly, a Minister for Education and Skills can fast-track things and make them happen more quickly by sending a design team down to sign off on things to move the process on. That is the kind of practical intervention that I want my Department officials to be involved in with local authorities so we can move through the approval stages in a more timely manner than we have been doing so far.