Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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18. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the amount of funding that has been released to local authorities from the announced housing allocation for 2015, in total and in each of the following categories - for construction, long-term lease, housing assistance payment, and rental accommodation scheme; the number of units that are expected to be available in each of the coming five years in each local authority in the State; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22314/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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Total expenditure to date for 2015 across the full range of housing programmes, both capital and current, is almost €110 million. Specifically, there has been expenditure of almost €3.4 million under the local authority construction and acquisition programme, €6.35 million under the Social Housing Current Expenditure Programme (previously referred to as the Social Housing Leasing Initiative), €44.35 million under the Rental Accommodation Scheme and €2.3 million under the housing assistance programme.

It is expected that expenditure will accelerate significantly as the capital programmes come on stream following recent announcements on capital allocations.

The Social Housing Strategy 2020, published in November 2014, 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 will support an additional 35,000 new units to be delivered by local authorities and approved housing bodies at an estimated cost of €3.8bn.

Ambitious targets have been set for local authorities to 2017, with the announcement on 1 April 2015 of over €1.5 billion to be invested in a combination of building, purchase and leasing schemes, to accommodate 25% of those currently on social housing waiting lists.

Together with Minister of State Coffey, I approved €312 million on 5 May for the first phase of a direct build local authority construction programme, which will result in an additional 1,700 social housing units by 2017. Details are available on my Department's website at the following links: