Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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176. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will consider a submission which includes an estate (details supplied) in County Offaly for funding from the site resolution fund; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18343/14]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Budget 2014 contains a special provision, in the form of a targeted €10m Special Resolution Fund (SRF), to assist further in addressing the legacy of unfinished housing developments. The SRF is designed to encourage the resolution of the remaining tranche of unfinished developments identified in the National Housing Development Survey 2013 and, particularly, those developments not likely to be resolved in the normal way through solely developer/owner/funder action because of the presence of specific financial barriers. It is envisaged that the SRF should be particularly targeted to address the remaining unfinished developments with residents living in them and, in particular, any developments that local authorities identified, for the purposes of the Local Property Tax waiver, as in a seriously problematic condition.

My Department is currently evaluating SRF applications from local authorities in accordance with the specified criteria. I understand that an application for funding under the SRF was received in respect of the development in question, to which a Local Property Tax waiver applies. I am conscious of the limited time available to complete SRF projects within the current year and, while I am not currently in a position to confirm whether the application in respect of the development in question will be successful, I expect that my Department will be in a position to finalise its consideration of the matter in the very near future.

I hope that the SRF will enable very substantial progress to be made in resolving as many of the remaining unfinished developments as possible.