Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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23. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the capacity of tier 3 housing associations has been enhanced under his tenure; his plans for the sector; the quantity of housing delivered by tier 3 housing associations in each year from 2008 to 2012 and to date in 2013; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51816/13]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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The Government’s Housing Policy Statement of June 2011 acknowledged the capacity and track record of the voluntary and cooperative housing sector and placed approved housing bodies (AHBs) at the heart of its vision for social housing provision. In July 2013 we published Building for the Future, a voluntary regulation code and an important step towards a statutory regulatory framework.

My Department, together with the Housing and Sustainable Communities Agency and the Housing Finance Agency, is now working with the sector to develop a set of financial criteria to further enhance its capacity to contribute to housing provision. The voluntary regulation code , which is available on my Department’s website , proposes three tiers or organisational classifications, of which Tier 3 includes the largest organisations, i.e. those bodies with more than 300 housing units or with sizable development plans . Under the voluntary code AHBs are expected to self-select the tier they believe best fits their organisation , considering their current activities. To date, just over 70 AHBs have signed up to the voluntary regulation code, of which 5 have been classified as Tier 3.

Prior to the publication of the voluntary regulation code , AHBs were not classified into discrete categories . As a result my Department does not have a breakdown of the contribution by size of AHB to the quantity of housing delivered. However, details of the quantity of housing delivered by housing associations in each year from 2008 to 2012 are available on my Department’s website.

The 2013 housing statistics have not yet been finalised. Data to date in 2013 indicate that for the first three quarters of the year, some 100 units were delivered by AHBs under my Department’s Capital Assistance Scheme. In addition, to the end of October 2013, 558 social housing units were delivered by the sector under my Department's Social Housing Leasing Initiative.