Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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1471. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government in respect of the four Dublin local authorities, Meath County Council, Kildare County Council and Wicklow County Council, the amount of houses acquired for social housing; the amount of properties entered into rental accommodation scheme and under the social leasing initiative; the amount constructed for social housing since the announcement earlier this year of large-scale measures to tackle the housing problem; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31826/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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On 1 April, I announced provisional funding allocations totalling €1.5 billion for all local authorities, to meet an ambitious delivery target of circa. 22,900 social housing units out to 2017. Details of the individual targets set for local authorities can be found on my Department’s website at:.

To date in 2015, some €493 million has been allocated to local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies for the construction and acquisition of over 2,900 social housing units, fulldetails of which can be found on my Department’s website at the following links:

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In addition, over €91 million worth of housing investment, across a range of housing schemes, including bring vacant social housing units back into productive use, which is an important component to reducing the numbers on the social housing waiting lists was announced in May 2015. Full details of the allocations made to local authorities are available on my Department’s website at the following link:

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Data in relation to all social housing units acquired or developed by all local authorities, including those authorities referred to in the Question, to the end of Q1 2015 are published on my Department’s website at the following link:, under the heading “LA hsg output commenced (1994+)”. Data in relation to Q2 is currently being collated and will be published shortly.

Delivery under the Social Housing Current Expenditure Programme (SHCEP, previously referred to as the social housing leasing initiative) nationally has reached 6,323 units by the end of August 2015, of which 699 have been delivered in 2015. My Department has issued approval for 8,304 housing units to be brought into social housing use under SHCEP and I am confident that local authorities that utilise all the delivery mechanisms available under SHCEP will continue to deliver in substantial numbers. Details of the properties entered into under the Social Housing Current Expenditure Programme and the Rental Accommodation Scheme in 2015 for the local authorities referred to in the Question are outlined in a table.

**To end August 2015