Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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216. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the extent to which his office has received requests from each of the local authorities for approval for the purchase or building of local authority houses; the extent to which he expects this to impact on the housing lists in County Kildare and adjoining counties; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9566/15]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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217. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the extent to which he expects Kildare County Council to receive funds and approval from his Department to address the housing requirement in the county; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9567/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 216 and 217 together.

Social housing is a key priority for Government, as evidenced by the increased provision made for the area in Budget 2015. The Social Housing Strategy 2020: Support, Supply and Reform builds on the provisions contained in Budget 2015 and sets out clear, measurable actions and targets to increase the supply of social housing, reform delivery arrangements and meet the housing needs of all households on the housing list.

The Strategy targets the delivery of 35,000 new social housing units over the period to 2020. The cost to the exchequer of building, acquiring, or leasing these 35,000 units is estimated over the period to 2020 to be €3.8 billion. Significant exchequer funding is being allocated to ensure that the early phases of the Strategy will be delivered.

Actions 1 and 4 of the Strategy require the agreement of national targets for delivery of social housing across local authorities in 2015 and in subsequent years. This process is well underway on an individual local authority by local authority basis, and will be concluded by the end of Quarter 1 2015, in accordance with the timeline set out in the Strategy. In this regard, my Department has sought and received delivery proposals from each local authority, including Kildare County Council and adjoining authorities, for the years 2015 to 2017 and these are now being assessed.

The precise details of the delivery will be agreed on a local authority by local authority basis in the coming weeks. However, these will be based on the targets which are set out in the Strategy, under which I expect some 5,800 new social housing units to be built or acquired by local authorities and approved housing bodies over the period 2015 to 2017, with a further 1,700 vacant local authority units being returned to use. The allocation of funding to local authorities for the build and acquisition of social housing units will be based on the proposals they will be implementing to deliver social housing units in line with the targets of the Social Housing Strategy.