Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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7. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of households on local authority housing waiting lists at the end of November 2017, or October 2017 in the event November's statistics are not available; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52066/17]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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My question looks for an accurate figure for the number of people on waiting lists for local authority housing. At the rough end of that are the people described in Deputy Smith's question but there are also issues related to construction and supply.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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My Department does not record monthly statistics on the number of households qualified for social housing support. Details on the number of households qualified for social housing support in each housing authority area are provided in the statutory summary of social housing assessments, which are now being carried out an annual basis and we have last year's figures.

The most recently published statutory summary of social housing assessments relates to the assessment carried out in 2016. This records the number of households on all local authority waiting lists, as at 21 September 2016.  The results of the 2016 summary show that there were 91,600 households deemed qualified for, and in need of, social housing support. Full details in relation to the 2016 assessment are available on my Department's website.

I expect the results of the 2017 assessment, carried out in September, to be published shortly. We expect the figures to be slightly down but we do not have them yet and there is no point giving the Deputy figures that are not fully assessed. When we have them we will make them available. If we need to correct the record we will do so, but we work off the net need at the moment.

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I appreciate that the figures will be out in a few weeks' time but while the Minister has indicated they will be lower, I imagine they will not be much lower. We are all aware of the huge demand for housing and the number on waiting lists around the country. This goes back to Deputy Cowen's question about supply and the construction programme of local authorities. We really need local authorities to build houses for people on waiting lists, which is the most basic and traditional way to supply housing. I did some analysis of the social housing output report of 2015 on schemes that were approved by the beginning of 2016 and the recent social housing construction status report of 2017 indicates that the majority of those approved at that time are still not at construction stage but are in the capital appraisal, preplanning and pre-tender stages. They have not started building yet. What is the Minister doing to get the construction programme moving more quickly? Is the problem in the Department, in councils or somewhere between the two?

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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We have had discussions on the various processes of getting on site which we are constantly trying to improve as a major part of Rebuilding Ireland. Local authorities are the responsible authorities to do this. Their capacity was reduced by previous Governments, for reasons with which I did not agree, but we are building it up by strengthening their teams and the number of people available to them, as well as giving them funding so that they can up their game and take charge of the delivery of housing. The most recent statistics show that there are 772 developments in the pipeline, which will deliver 12,293 homes, though we have asked local authorities to increase this figure. The number of schemes at capital appraisal is 165, with 119 at preplanning and 58 at pre-tender design. The number of site starts is 191 and at site finish stage there are 147. On top of these there are acquisitions and bringing back voids and turnkey projects so activity is well up. The figures will show that next year, with up to 8,000 social houses being delivered as compared to a year ago or two or three years ago. We recognise that it is not enough and we have told local authorities to put more projects in place. This includes agreeing a new timeline for bringing projects to site and where it used to be up to five years it is now at 59 weeks, which is in line with the private sector.

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Is the Minister going to deliver on those timelines? In my local authority, houses which are going to be ready for occupation next year will be counted as delivered in 2018 but they started back in 2014. There are sites on which construction should have started years ago but they are still sites and, meanwhile, people are out on the streets, hungry and cold and trying to get into emergency accommodation. We need a sense of urgency.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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That is exactly what we are trying to put into the system. I agree that there is no excuse for sites taking up to eight years to be completed. We are reviewing all the projects and we are looking at the processes to see if we can put in place realistic timelines that all local authorities can sign up to. Their housing teams and chief executives have bought into this, as has our Department. Our job is to deliver it and a new team in the Department will track it on a weekly basis, viewing sites with me and the Minister to ensure it is happening on the ground and to deal with any barriers we come across. In the past there were no timelines or agreed process, which is a crazy way to deliver projects, but we now have these things and with proper project management I am confident we can deliver them on time. It is not good enough for a project to take six years. It happened in the past but it will not happen in the future and we will stand over that. We had to narrow the process down first and we have achieved that.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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In response to a freedom of information request, I received the net social housing need waiting list for all local authorities as of 1 September and the figure was 99,555 households. The Department uses a different methodology for the housing needs assessment it is about to publish, as it did last year, so it is important to outline to the House what is the methodology. The Department is not cleaning the statistics in the same way as it did and, having spoken to council officials, I am unclear as to what the methodology is in my council area and how comparable are last year's and this year's figures.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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My understanding is that the process will be the same as last year.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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It is not.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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It will be based on net need, which means people who are in need of a house or whose housing needs are not being met. People on the HAP or RAS schemes or on the transfer list are not included because their housing needs are met but it will include people on rent assistance, which is 45% of the total number on the housing waiting list. It also includes people in other private rented accommodation, or in emergency accommodation. It includes anyone who is in need of a social house and qualifies under income limits.

We do not expect a dramatic drop in the figures but we have analysed the data and we expect a slight reduction. This is not enough for people who want a house but it is a positive trend. The more important trend, however, is that for the delivery of housing which is up as compared to recent years, and rightly so, both for completed houses and starts. We are asking local authorities and all parties to help us in this as we need support at local authority level. There are still far too many vacant properties. We have recommended all the schemes to deal with vacant properties, such as CPO, repair and leaseback and the purchase and renew scheme because they are not being fully utilised at present. It is even worse that somebody is homeless in a county where there are vacant properties.