Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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157. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will provide an update on the information available to his Department regarding the acreage of land zoned for future residential development; the total number of houses that can be built on that undeveloped zoned land; the amount of it that is in Dublin; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12628/14]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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The Housing Land Availability Survey (HLAS) is an annual survey undertaken by my Department seeking information from local authorities to inform the publication of the amount of zoned residential land in their areas that is currently serviced. In 2013, my Department reviewed the HLAS approach taking account of the advent of and the need to reduce and rationalise the data gathering requirements placed on local authorities. A new internet based approach called the Residential Land Availability Survey (RLAS) is currently being finalised in conjunction with local authorities which will produce robust datasets mapped to individual land parcels across all local authorities. I expect that the final RLAS will be available by the end of April 2014 and the RLAS survey will be undertaken annually thereafter.

However, it is provisionally estimated that there is currently in excess of 25,000 hectares of undeveloped residentially zoned land nationally which equates to a capacity for over 500,000 new homes (based on a national average of 20 units per hectare). This capacity is considered to be sufficient to meet the housing requirements nationally for in excess of the next ten years.

With regard to the availability of land for housing development in the Dublin area, a recent separate data gathering exercise conducted by my Department indicated that there is currently appropriate zoning of land for upwards of 30,000 new homes in the Dublin region, across the four Dublin local authorities.