Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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The Government's targets in regard to social housing are not set on the basis of a social housing stock per population. Quantifying targets in this manner would not be appropriate given the influence of demographic and economic factors on the level of need at any point in time. The focus of the Government's housing programmes is on responding to identified needs. A broad range of targeted initiatives have been introduced in recent years to address the needs of low income groups and those with social and special housing needs.

The Government has responded to increased levels of social housing need by expanding social and affordable housing output significantly in recent years and is committed to maintaining strong programmes into the future. Additional resources are being made available this year to increase the output of social housing further. As a result, we expect that approximately 5,500 new houses will be started under the main local authority programme and that the output of the voluntary and co-operative housing sector will also increase.

In total, my Department will spend a record €1.3 billion in Exchequer funding on supports for social and affordable housing programmes in 2005. This will enable the needs of more than 13,000 households to be met this year through existing schemes and the new rent accommodation scheme will address the long-term housing needs of some 5,000 recipients of rent supplement.

The decision to introduce five-year multi-annual capital investment programmes provides an important opportunity to ensure a structured basis for the planning and delivery of all social and affordable housing programmes. The statutory assessment of social housing which must be undertaken at the end of March this year will provide an up-to-date assessment of social housing needs.

To maximise the benefits of this multi-annual approach, five-year action plans for social and affordable housing have been developed by local authorities. The main objective in developing these action plans is the need to ensure that the investment available for these programmes achieves the desired effect in the long term by tackling real need and breaking cycles of disadvantage and dependency having regard to the funding available under the five-year multi-annual capital envelopes.

The expanded social and affordable housing provision over recent years has had a beneficial impact on the social rented housing stock. Returns from local authorities indicate that the number of occupied local authority dwellings has increased in recent years. The number of occupied local authority dwellings at the end of 2003 was in the order of 107,000, compared with 99,200 at the end of 1998.