Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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59. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if his attention has been drawn to the recent call by NABCO and ICSH for investment in social housing which would support jobs; and if he is considering any proposals to undertake an investment package in social housing which would increase housing stock, improve conditions and create jobs. [27058/13]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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The Government's housing policy statement, published in June 2011, clearly identifies that the priority for Government will be to meet the most acute needs of households applying for social housing support. I am determined to ensure that the social housing programme optimises the delivery of social housing and the return for the resources invested. To achieve this, it is essential that we tailor the use of available Exchequer supports to prevailing conditions and explore the full range of solutions to address housing needs.

In terms of addressing the demand for social housing, my Department's social housing capital budget has been reduced from €1.535 billion in 2008 to €287 million in 2013 and the financial parameters within which we will be operating for the coming years rule out a return to large capital funded construction programmes.

The Government is committed to responding more quickly and on a larger scale to social housing support needs through a variety of mechanisms, including through increased provision of social housing. In July 2012, I announced details of a three-year funding programme of €100 million to deliver some 800 new units of voluntary and local authority owned social housing. I am monitoring expenditure under my Department's housing programme for 2013, together with the level of contractual commitments extending into 2014, with a view to a decision later this year on approving some limited new construction and house purchases over the period to end 2014.

In line with the Government's Housing Policy Statement which was published in 2011, delivery of social housing will be significantly facilitated through more flexible funding models such as the Rental Accommodation Scheme and leasing but 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. My Department is actively engaged with various interested parties in this respect.

There is also obvious potential, across a range of housing programmes, for the Government's objective of sourcing and providing suitable residential units for use as social housing to be aligned with the commercial objectives of the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA). My Department and the Housing Agency are engaged with NAMA in identifying suitable housing units for social purposes and this process is on-going. These deliberations have also identified suitably located sites which require substantial works to finish out and NAMA is investing accordingly thus bringing about obvious benefits in terms of job creation.

Earlier this year, I introduced a new €10 million energy retrofitting measure for older local authority dwellings, based around roof and wall insulation and with the potential to reduce energy bills by around €400 per year. Last week the Government committed to providing an additional €50 million to accelerate this programme and ensure that up to 25,000 homes are fully insulated and draught-proofed by mid-2015. In addition to providing immediate benefits to the families concerned, this new investment package has the capacity to create approximately 1,000 new jobs and reduce carbon emissions by some 30,000 tonnes per year - an important contribution to Ireland's climate change strategy.

The Housing Policy Statement specifically identifies approved housing bodies (AHBs), such as those represented by ICSH and NABCO, as key partners in the delivery of social housing. This recognises both the constrained funding levels available for local authority construction programmes and the capacity and track-record of the voluntary and cooperative housing sector.

AHBs are uniquely placed to help drive the achievement of the housing supply responses set out in the policy statement. However, the move from capital funded programmes of construction and acquisition by approved housing bodies to more revenue funded options present s challenges for them. As such, I am developing an enabling regulatory framework for the sector that will provide support and assurance both to the sector itself and to its external partners as it takes on the expanded role envisaged for it in the policy statement.

The development of a regulatory framework will take time. In the meantime, I am engaging with the sector on the development of a voluntary regulation code which, I would hope, most approved housing bodies will sign up to over time and I expect to publish a final version of this code in the coming weeks.

My Department, in conjunction with the Department of Finance and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, is also exploring a range of options for external investment in social housing including, inter alia, social housing bonds and social impact bonds. Such options are still in development. In some instances, this could potentially enable sizeable lending by the European Investment Bank and others to the AHB sector.

Taken together, this package of direct Exchequer investment, new funding models and the creation of an environment that will encourage new external lending to the sector is a flexible response to the challenge of meeting social housing need in the most trying of economic circumstances.