Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 117: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if he has undertaken any assessment of the viability of social housing bonds as discussed in the programme for Government. [27678/11]

Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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With levels of capital funding for social housing reduced by some 66.23% since 2008, the financial parameters within which we are operating, and will be operating over the coming years, rule out a return to very large capital-funded construction programmes by local authorities. Accordingly, delivery of social housing will be primarily facilitated by more flexible funding models, with the social housing leasing initiative and, in particular, the Rental Accommodation Scheme, playing their parts as long-term housing supports.

The Programme for Government listed some of the options we are exploring to facilitate the increased provision of social housing, including social housing bonds and the viability of utilising the value of existing social housing stock as a means of leveraging further funding for the provision of social housing. The Government is also committed to developing other funding mechanisms that will increase the supply of permanent new social housing. Such mechanisms will include options to purchase, build to lease, and the sourcing of loan finance by approved housing bodies for construction and acquisition. Under the latter option, approved housing bodies will be able to build or acquire new social housing, remunerating their borrowings with funding provided by the Department under the leasing scheme. At the end of the loan period the approved housing body will own outright the units which will either continue to be made available for social housing purposes or may be sold to sitting tenants.

The first scheme of this nature, involving loan finance from the Housing Finance Agency being used by an approved housing body to purchase housing units from NAMA, was launched in July 2011. I expect this facility to be a critical source of new social housing provision in the years ahead. A range of other funding options remain under examination with a view to maximising the delivery of housing supports.

The first scheme of this nature, involving loan finance from the Housing Finance Agency being used by an approved housing body to purchase housing units from NAMA, was launched in July 2011. I expect this facility to be a critical source of new social housing provision in the years ahead. A range of other funding options remain under examination with a view to maximising the delivery of housing supports.