Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 118: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the number of units of social and affordable housing provided under Part V of the Planning and Development Acts 2000 to 2002 from 1 January 2005 to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30319/05]

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Information up to the June quarter of 2005 on the number of social and affordable housing units acquired under Part V of the Planning and Development Acts 2000 to 2004 is published in my Department's housing statistics bulletins, which are available in the Oireachtas Library and on the Department's website at www.environ.ie.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 180: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if his attention has been drawn to the fact that owing to lack of current or forwarding addresses, thousands of local authority housing applicants were deleted from the local authority housing list in the course of the housing assessment programme initiated by his Department; if each applicant will be restored to the housing list with full and retrospective entitlement; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30393/05]

Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 198: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the number of applicants on local authority housing lists nationally in 1997 and 2002 in the four Dublin counties. [30413/05]

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I propose to take Questions Nos. 119, 180 and 198 together.

The most recent three yearly assessment of need for social housing was carried out by local authorities in March 2005. Returns were received in my Department over the summer period. The data are now being finalised and will be published very shortly.

The Government has been making substantial progress in addressing the concerns raised in the NESC report, with record housing output levels and increased investment in social and affordable housing measures. New measures have already been announced to accelerate the delivery of affordable housing and to maximise the availability of land for social and affordable housing programmes. The Government indicated at that stage that the more medium-term issues highlighted by NESC, particularly in the social and affordable housing area, would be addressed later in the year.

The NESC report advocated a significant increase in the social housing stock and by way of illustration argued for a social housing stock possibly to as many as 200,000 units by 2012. The NESC acknowledged, however, that the appropriateness of the overall scale of ambition and the urgency of actions would be clearer after the completion of the 2005 assessment of housing need. The Government's consideration of this matter will therefore be informed by the outcome of the statutory housing needs assessment being finalised at present and the work by the housing forum in reviewing the effectiveness of the existing social and affordable housing schemes in the context of the Sustaining Progress agreement. I anticipate the announcement of a new statement of housing policy at the end of this year.

For the purposes of undertaking the 2005 housing needs assessment, my Department issued guidelines to local authorities requesting them to contact applicants included in a previous assessment or subsequently accepted for inclusion in the next assessment to see whether they are still seeking to be housed. Local authorities were requested to carry out an extensive search for any of their existing applicants who did not respond to their requests to update information in relation to their applications. It is understood that in many instances this involved local authorities writing to the applicant up to three times and attempts were also made in some instances to contact applicants by phone.

It is a matter for individual local authorities to decide, having regard to efforts made to contact applicants, to decide on the status of applicants for waiting list purposes. My Department has no function in these individual decisions. Equally, it is a matter for individual local authorities to decide whether a housing applicant who has failed to notify the local authority of where he or she is residing should be reinstated on the waiting list with retrospective recognition of a previous application.

Previous housing needs assessments were carried out in 2002, 1999 and 1996. Information on the number of households in need of housing in the four Dublin authorities was published in my Department's September quarterly edition of the housing statistics bulletin for those years, copies of which are available in the Oireachtas Library.