Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 313: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the vacant affordable housing stock for each local authority; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5931/10]

Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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It should be recognised that there will always be a certain level of stock of unsold affordable units on hands at any given time, whatever the prevailing housing market conditions. The slowdown in sales of affordable housing has moved in step with the process of correction in the wider housing market. Since late 2008, my Department and the Affordable Homes Partnership have been working closely with local authorities to ensure that unsold affordable housing units are deployed effectively.

Very considerable progress has been made on both the sale of affordable housing - despite the current difficult economic and banking climate – with over 1,300 affordable homes sold in the first 9 months of 2009, and the deployment of unsold affordable homes for other purposes, including temporary use under the social leasing or RAS schemes.

Details of the numbers of unsold units on hands by local authority area are set out in the table below. While the sale of the affordable units on hands remains the preferred option, the local authorities are considering a wide range of options to bring these units into use.