Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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The issue I raise concerns whether the Minister has completed collating the data for the landbanks available for housing and what plans are in place for funding housing provision on same. Is the Minister aware that there are almost 4,000 people on the housing waiting list in County Louth? Many of them have been waiting more than nine years to be housed. The situation in County Louth is shocking, and given the scale of the housing crisis I am sure that is replicated right across the State. The number of applicants on the housing waiting lists exceeds the entire supply of council-owned housing stock in County Louth. That is a shocking statistic to bring to the attention of the House. Three generations of families live under one roof in overcrowded conditions. There are no affordable properties and there is a chronic shortage of private rental accommodation, and such accommodation that is available is not affordable for most. Where rental accommodation is available, landlords refuse to take tenants in receipt of the housing assistance payment. Meanwhile, there are 54 acres of council-zoned landbanks throughout the county. In the case of Louth County Council, it must pay €3 million a year in interest only for the loans on the landbanks. The €3 million comes out of the local authority's own budget so citizens are deprived of vital services and amenities because the council must pay such an amount in interest on the landbanks. Meanwhile, the land lies idle and barren as not a single house has yet been built.

Last July, the Minister launched his Rebuilding Ireland document, yet several months later in November, when I asked him about council-zoned landbanks and landbanks belonging to local authorities, he said he had not collated any data. It surprised me that in the middle of a housing crisis one of the first ports of call would not be to ascertain what land belonged to local authorities across the State on which one could roll out a proper social housing provision programme. The Minister had not even bothered to collect the data. That adds weight to the criticism of the Minister and the Government that the Government's response to the housing crisis is developer led and developer driven. The landbanks in County Louth consist of almost 54 acres. They are in Mullavalley in Louth village, Kilkerley, Ballymakenny Road in Drogheda, Mount Avenue and Point Road in Dundalk and Newtown Meadows in Drogheda.

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There are over 20 acres of those 53 acres of land in Drogheda and not a single house has been built. What plans does the Minister have? Why is he, point blank, refusing to give funding for the roll-out of a social housing building programme on these lands I have identified?

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy's general question was not specific to Louth but I will certainly deal with Louth as well. Rebuilding Ireland contains a number of integrated actions to underpin active land supply management for the delivery of housing. Initially, this involves identifying and mapping sites in local authority and public ownership, with appropriate lands to be master-planned to deliver increased mixed tenure housing, including social and more affordable homes, to meet demand. Our aim is to use publicly-owned land banks much more strategically than we did in the past. The mixed tenure approach allows for risk sharing and far quicker delivery of homes on the site as a whole. Most important, mixed tenure developments are about meeting the housing need of those on the housing list as well as those who do not come under the income thresholds in terms of qualifying for social housing support but still have difficulty meeting the cost of their accommodation.

With regard to the mapping project specifically, the Housing Agency, in close consultation with my Department and local authorities, including Louth, has already commenced the mapping of approximately 700 sites in local authority ownership and those held by the agency under the land aggregation scheme, showing their location, size, boundaries and other information. The data that was compiled did not exist when the Deputy initially asked the question. This mapping exercise will form part of the broader national land supply management strategy as committed to under action 3.5 of Rebuilding Ireland, which is being developed within the context of the national planning framework, Ireland 2040. We expect to be in a position to publish a map of some 700 local authority and land aggregation scheme sites, together with lands zoned for residential development, in the coming weeks. This map will be updated regularly over time to ensure the best possible information is publicly available.

With regard to funding providing for housing on local authority-owned lands, under Rebuilding Ireland, a highly ambitious programme of 47,000 social housing homes will be delivered by 2021, with funding of €5.35 billion. My Department engages on an ongoing basis with all local authorities, including Louth, Meath and others in the greater Dublin region, to consider proposals for the delivery of their social housing programmes. The Minister, Deputy Coveney, and I have met directly with local authority chief executives and elected members, assuring them that funding is available to advance new projects and to urge the swiftest possible progress on the overall building programmes. The Minister and I were in Louth and met the chief executive of that council, as well as councillors, stressing the need to bring forward a pipeline of projects.

Already a substantial pipeline of new social housing construction projects has been created, reversing the decline of previous years, when local authorities and approved housing bodies had seen much reduced activity in the area. In the Deputy's own county of Louth, for example, there are now 26 projects. Louth County Council and various approved housing bodies will deliver 348 homes at various stages of the construction project life cycle. My Department recently published a full list of social housing construction projects, involving 8,430 homes in total across 504 projects. They are available on the website and I have the list for Louth here. I can give it to the Deputy, as it lists 26 projects and the various stages at which they are. We are keen that all projects should be advanced as quickly as possible and I have assured local authorities that funding is available for well-planned, quality projects that fully support efforts in this regard.

At its heart, the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan on Housing and Homelessness is about increasing and accelerating housing delivery across all tenures to meet housing needs. The active pursuit of housing provision on State lands, including local authority land, is an important part of delivering on the overall ambition. A vital first step is to identify and map the sites in local authority and public ownership with appropriate lands to be master-planned to deliver increased mixed tenure housing, including social and more affordable homes to meet demand. That work is well under way and I expect detailed mapping of local authority housing lands to be completed by the end of March.

I spoke directly with the Deputy's housing officials in Louth, along with councillors, to help bring this forward and make suggestions for various sites. We are in the business of doing that and they will bring forward initiatives based on the various sites they own. Approximately 55 acres of land belong to Louth County Council and we have asked it to bring forward a pipeline of projects with that. There are 26 in play now and we are open to discussing more on that, including the various lands referred to by the Deputy. We have been very clear with Louth County Council and we want more development. We are willing to work on that.

Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Imagine we are now over eight months after the launch of the Rebuilding Ireland document and the Government still has not completed the mapping of the local authority land banks. That demonstrates the priority afforded by the Government to the funding of social housing provision. It is eight months since the launch and we are in the midst of a housing crisis but the Government still has not completed the list of land banks across the State. It beggars belief.

The Minister of State indicates there are 26 different projects but only six are being done by the local authority. The rest are from public-private partnerships and approved housing bodies. With the six developments, there will be a total of 123 homes over the next two to three years. There are 4,000 people on the housing list and the Government plans to provide 123 homes over the next three to four years. Of those homes, 20 have an unknown date of completion, seven are regeneration projects and 24 come from the acquisition of vacant units. There are three being done up on Bóthar Brugha in Drogheda that are just being renovated. There seems to be no roll-out of a proper Government-funded social housing provision.

Not all the local authority members were impressed by the Minister of State or the delivery he has overseen. The Government still has not finished the report detailing the mapping of council-owned lands. It is essentially saying, right in the midst of a housing crisis, that Louth should be happy enough with 123 houses, with only a certain number being newly built, over the next three to four years. The problem will be compounded further. It is clear as a bell that the Government's entire policy to solve the housing crisis is developer-led and developer-driven. That is just not going to work.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I had the same mantra from the Deputy's colleagues in the Seanad earlier but we are clearly not what they describe. We are committed to social housing projects and putting the capacity back in the system to deliver social housing. There is a commitment of approximately €5.5 billion for social housing and 47,000 housing units throughout the country. Louth will play a major part in that. We have engaged the local authority and we have the land bank compiled for Louth County Council. There are 55 acres and I can go through all the sites as it is here in front of me.

Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister of State did not have it a few months ago.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Please do not try to say we do not have it. We have engaged with the local authority to ask it to bring forward proposals for all these different sites. On some sites there has been an application for funding from the local infrastructure fund; that will be announced at the end of the month and I hope some of the sites in Louth will be able to benefit so we can activate these sites. Most of the housing projects that have been committed to are being done in conjunction with or through Louth local authority. There is a total of 594 houses already in play but I am not in any way saying that is enough. We want much more than that and we have engaged with local authorities on the issue. We have made it clear the funding is there to develop this pipeline of houses. We will use land banks of public lands but we want to see more housing. We have said that to the council in Louth.

Contrary to the Deputy's opinion, we had a very constructive meeting with all the councillors, including those from the Deputy's party, on two occasions. All the questions would have been answered and dealt with and they were probably surprised by some of the responses. I totally accept that Sinn Féin claims it wants to build more social housing, although I have not seen funding for that.

Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister of State's party is in government.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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As I indicated to the Deputy's colleague in the Seanad, we have put in place a plan to reactivate the construction of social housing. It had been closed down well before the recession. We do not have Sinn Féin's magic pen to make that happen tomorrow. All we can do is put in place plans to deliver that over the years ahead. We have made strong commitments in that respect. The money is there to do it now. We have been very clear in saying that Louth's local authority should bring forward its proposals. There are plans in place for a pipeline of nearly 600 houses. It is not enough to solve the housing crisis and we want to do more. It is not true to say there are 4,000 people on the social housing waiting list in Louth as the figure is 2,600. The Deputy should use the facts.

Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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The figures are factual.