Brian Walsh (Galway West, Independent)
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847. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government his views on the removal of the buy-out clause from Part V of the Planning and Development Act 2000, in areas with a high demand for social housing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11083/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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Informed by a recent review of the provisions of Part V of the Planning and Development Acts, which included a public consultation process, proposed legislative changes have been set out in the General Scheme of the Planning and Development (No. 1) Bill which was published in November 2014 and is available on my Department's website at:

The General Scheme provides that, in future, the focus of Part V will be on the delivery of completed social housing units, with a requirement for up to 10% social housing in developments of 10 or more units. In the operation of these revised Part V arrangements, the priority will be to secure social housing units on-site; the making of cash payments in lieu of social housing units is to be discontinued. The Bill is currently being drafted in consultation with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel with a view to its publication in the coming weeks and enactment before the summer recess.

The changes to the Part V provisions that are proposed are a key component of the range of delivery mechanisms that will be required to achieve the targets set out in the Government's Social Housing Strategy 2020. It is estimated that in the region of 4,000 additional social housing units will be delivered by 2020 through the Part V mechanism.

My Department has recently instructed local authorities to ensure that Part V agreements are discharged in ways that maximise the potential for the immediate delivery of social housing units.