Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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1056. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government further to recent parliamentary questions, if he will confirm the number of housing units offered to Dublin City Council and Fingal County Council by the National Asset Management Agency; whether these two local authorities refused a substantial number of these units; if he has received an explanation from them as to the reason for these refusals, given that homeless and housing waiting lists have hardly moved in the past year, and are continuing to grow; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37610/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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Since December 2011, my Department and the Housing Agency have been engaged with NAMA identifying properties that might potentially be suitable for social housing purposes. Full details of units offered to local authorities and delivered under this process, including a break down by local authority, is available on the website of the Housing Agency at /NAMA.

Since the process began, up to end of September 2015, a total of 1,600 NAMA residential properties have been delivered for social housing use, comprising of 1,241 completed properties, with a further 359 that have been contracted and where completion work is on-going.

Of the total 6,574 units identified nationally, 4,048 are no longer available for social housing purposes for a variety of reasons. In respect of 2,469 of these properties, local authorities considered them unsuitable for social housing purposes because of sustainable planning and housing policy issues associated with the units or the unitswere located in areas with no social housing demand. A further 1,579 units originally identified by NAMA as available for social housing were subsequently discovered by NAMA to be unavailable.

In the Dublin City Council area , 827 units were identified, 399 had demand confirmed by the City Council and of these 377 have been delivered to the end of September 2015. Of those units not progressing, 190 were subsequently discovered by NAMA to be unavailable and 238 were determined not to be suitable by the City Council. Of these 238 units , almost 150 units were in a single development where the City Council determined that 48 units in the development was a sustainable number for social housing purposes and those have been delivered. In that context demand was confirmed in 29 developments (either for the total development or a portion on the development) from the total 32 developments identified by NAMA.

In the Fingal County Council area, 270 units were identified, 105 had demand confirmed by the Council and of these, 60 have been delivered to the end of September 2015. Of those units not progressing 153 were subsequently discovered by NAMA to be unavailable and 12 were determined not to be suitable for social housing purposes by the Council.

The process of reviewing units previously deemed unsuitable by local authorities is on-going. Local authorities, particularly those in high demand areas, are continually reviewing the list of available NAMA properties to see if they are suitable to be brought into use as social housing.