Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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521. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government about the number of social housing units that were new-builds, by local authority, in 2015; the number of these which have been completed and allocated; the number of these which are still under construction; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4912/16]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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In formation on social housing units constructed and acquired in respect of all local authorities and approved housing bodies and funded by direct capital investment by my Department, is published on my Department’s website at the following link: . Data up to Quarter 3 of 2015 is currently published, including a breakdown across the different categories of delivery for all local authorities. Data for the full 2015 calendar year will be published shortly. Overall, in excess of 13,000 social housing units have been delivered across all programmes in 2015. This represents an 86% increase on the 7,000 units delivered in 2014. Further ambitious targets have been set under the Social Housing Strategy 2020including for 2016, for which the target is to deliver 17,000 units. A full report on the 2015 outputs and targets for 2016 is available on my Department’s website at the following link: .

Following from the substantial announcements for new social housing projects that I made in May 2015, in July 2015 and in January 2016, we now have a strong pipeline of new social housing construction, acquisition and turnkey approvals in place.  Between these three announcements, almost €680 million has been allocated for over 3,900 social housing new builds and acquisitions. Details of these approvals are available on my Department’s website at the following links:

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It is not possible to confirm at this stage the exact breakdown of local authority units to be commenced or completed in 2016 on a county by county basis. All projects must proceed through the planning process and this and other factors can have a direct impact on the timing for the advancement of construction projects.