Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)
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888. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government his views that his Department's housing strategy is working given that Dublin City Council is at a stage where it is struggling to cope with the demand for housing due to the crisis in emergency accommodation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29219/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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The Social Housing Strategy’s targeted provision of over 110,000 social housing units to 2020, through the delivery of 35,000 new social housing units and meeting the housing needs of some 75,000 households through the Housing Assistance Payment and Rental Accommodation Scheme, will address the needs of the 90,000 households on the housing waiting list in full, with flexibility to meet potential future demand. In order to get the most accurate data relating to the numbers applying for social housing support, the Strategy also includes a commitment to increase the regularity of the summary of social housing assessments by undertaking it on an annual basis from 2016 onwards. With regard to social housing provision, the Social Housing Strategysets out ambitious targets for delivery to 2020, with delivery in the Dublin area being driven by a dedicated Dublin Social Housing Delivery Taskforce. On 1 April, I announced provisional funding allocations totalling €1.5 billion for all local authorities, to meet an ambitious delivery target of 22,883 social housing units out to 2017. Within this, the combined funding total for the Dublin local authorities comes to over €500 million. As part of the delivery under this €500 million programme for Dublin, €117 million was allocated to the four Dublin local authorities on 5 May in respect of 19 build projects, which will see the development of 566 new units of accommodation. Further announcements of new unit delivery under the Capital Assistance Scheme and the broader social housing investment programmes will be made in the coming weeks and months. The implementation of the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) is also progressing at pace, with over 2,500 households now in receipt of HAP across the local authority areas taking part in the statutory pilot scheme.

With regard to supports for homeless households, a range of measures is being taken to secure a ring-fenced supply of accommodation and mobilise the necessary supports in order to deliver on the Government's target of ending involuntary long-term homelessness by the end of 2016.  These measures have been identified in the Government's Implementation Plan on the State's Response to Homelessness(May 2014) and in the Action Plan to Address Homelessness(December 2014). 

Progress in implementing these plans is reported through the Cabinet Committee on Social Policy and Public Service Reform.  The plans and progress reports are available on my Department's website at the following link:

Furthermore, a Task Force and Unit are in place to identify and secure properties which could potentially be used to accommodate homeless families in the Dublin Region. The Unit is comprised of representatives from my Department, the Dublin Region Homeless Executive, Dublin City Council and the Housing Agency. It is linking with NAMA, the Department of Justice & Equality, OPW and the Department of Education & Skills to determine potential State-owned properties. The Unit is overseen by a Task Force, chaired by the Secretary General of my Department and also comprising other senior officials of my Department, the Chief Executive and Assistant Chief Executive (Housing) of Dublin City Council, the Chief Valuer of Dublin City Council, the Director of the Dublin Region Homeless Executive and the Chief Executive and a Senior Executive of the Housing Agency.