Michael Lowry (Tipperary, Independent)
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2. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of social housing units to be completed by Tipperary County Council by the end of 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55465/21]

Michael Lowry (Tipperary, Independent)
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How many social housing units are to be completed by Tipperary County Council by the end of 2022? Will the Minister make a general statement on housing in Tipperary and rural Ireland?

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for the question. He will be aware that Housing for All is our Government’s plan to increase the supply of housing to an average of 33,000 units per year over the next decade. This target includes the delivery of about 90,000 new social homes and just short of 54,000 new affordable homes from 2022 to 2030. As I mentioned, Housing for All is supported by an investment package of more than €4 billion each year, through an overall combination of €12 billion in direct Exchequer funding, €3.5 billion through the Land Development Agency, LDA, and €5 billion through the Housing Finance Agency, HFA. Under our plan, we will deliver 47,600 new build social homes from 2022 to 2026.

We are setting individual targets now for the delivery of social housing and they have been provided to each local authority under the Housing for All plan. I have asked the local authorities in Tipperary and elsewhere to develop housing delivery action plans and those plans must be submitted to me, the Minister of State with responsibility in this area, Deputy Burke, and the Department by December 2021. These plans will set out details on how and when local authorities will deliver their housing targets. Turning to Tipperary specifically, the county council there has been issued a target to deliver 887 new build social homes between 2022 and 2026. This includes a target for 2022 of 230 new builds. We will also allow a small amount of acquisition in that space, but those 230 homes are new builds.

Details on social housing delivery for each local authority are included in the social housing statistics published quarterly by my Department. We want to have transparency in this endeavour for elected representatives, including Deputies and councillors. The social housing construction status report, which is also published quarterly by my Department, will include scheme-level detail on social housing building activity. Therefore, we have provided the finance, we now have the target and we await the housing delivery plans from Tipperary County Council to arrive before the end of December.

Michael Lowry (Tipperary, Independent)
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The housing department of Tipperary County Council is progressive and organised and it does a pretty good job in delivering social and affordable housing. However, it must be noted that due to a lack of building over the years and because of changes in policy, we have a problem in Tipperary regarding the availability of social housing. When many people read about housing issues, they think the problem is a city issue and a Dublin issue, but it is not. It is also an issue in rural Ireland. In my constituency of Tipperary, Carrick-on-Suir, for instance, has 353 approved applicants with no houses. Tipperary town, Cahir and Cashel have 862 applicants with no possibility of getting houses in the short term. Clonmel has 662 approved applicants for housing, while Nenagh has 757 and Templemore has 954. Overall, we have a total of 3,588 people living in substandard housing conditions and we are told that 230 houses will be available in the next year, so there is a massive shortfall.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy is correct that there are challenges in this area, including in building up resources in local authorities. I agree with the Deputy completely that the challenges we face in housing are not just urban-centric, they exist all across the country in urban and rural areas. Our job as a Government and my job as the Minister is to support local authorities to enable them to deliver in this regard. We are providing the human resources for county councils, like the one in Tipperary, to enable them to create their own housing delivery teams and we will provide those posts for them.

We must build that capacity up. The target for next year of 230 new build homes will stretch some local authorities, but it is achievable. In the short term to 2026, delivering just short of 900 new social homes will make a significant impact. We have gone through those targets individually with each local authority, including with Tipperary County Council. We will provide whatever support is needed to help the local authority to meet those targets and to make real strides in reducing the housing waiting list in Tipperary.

Michael Lowry (Tipperary, Independent)
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On a related matter on the subject of housing, the Minister will be aware that technological universities can borrow money from the Housing Finance Agency, under the auspices of the Housing for All plan, to allow them to construct purpose-built student accommodation. St. Patrick’s College in Thurles is a campus of Mary Immaculate College, MIC, and it trains teachers. The college has a development and expansion plan, and it has been a successful venture for everybody, including for the economy of Thurles. I contacted the Minister, as well as the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Simon Harris. Can he tell me if there has been any progress in determining how we can fund the development of this accommodation on the campus of St. Patrick’s College in Thurles?

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I am familiar with the proposal from St. Patrick’s College in Thurles. On Tuesday of this week, I had a bilateral meeting with the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, to discuss several issues around student accommodation. Included in those discussions was the issue of how we might be able to assist in providing accommodation on the campus of St. Patrick’s College in Thurles. We met with senior officials and representatives from the area and we are progressing this project. I have asked the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to engage directly with the Housing Finance Agency in this regard. As the Deputy rightly said, we have a commitment to allow technological universities to borrow money for the construction of accommodation. A small bit of legal work is being done on that aspect to bring it to conclusion and that will be completed by the end of the year. The initial view is that St. Patrick’s College in Thurles could very well be able to access funds from the HFA now, and I will ask the representatives of the technological university to engage directly with officials of the HFA. We will be there to assist in any way we can, because there is a unique opportunity in Thurles to provide a significant amount of student accommodation in a short time. Everyone would welcome that, so we will do everything we can to help.