Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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14. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the number of local authority houses to be completed in 2015. [28989/15]

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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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 through a combination of building, purchase and leasing schemes.

I expect that a total of 7,400 new social housing units will be delivered in 2015. 3,000 units will be delivered under the Social Housing Current Expenditure Programme including leases, rental agreements and agreements with Approved Housing Bodies to facilitate leasing, build and acquisition. 2,000 units are to be delivered through the Rental Accommodation Scheme, 1,000 vacant properties will be returned to productive use and 1,400 units will be delivered through direct build and acquisition by local authorities and approved housing bodies. In addition to this 7,400, I expect over 8,000 households to benefit from the Housing Assistance Payment.

On 5 May last, Minister Kelly and I announced €312 million of funding 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 of these projects are available on my Department's website at the following web link:

Further announcements on the delivery of new social housing projects will be made in the coming weeks and months.

All local authorities have been advised of their targets for social housing delivery in the period 2015 -2017. The detailed targets for each authority are published on my Department's website. In summary, over €1.5billion will be invested in a combination of building, buying and leasing schemes, delivering some 22,900 units. This reflects the top priority this Government has accorded to achieving a significant ramp up in social housing, which will continue in the months ahead.