Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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541. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government how he will alleviate the housing crisis including what he will implement in lieu of modular housing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5245/16]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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A shortage of supply is at the heart of the current challenges in the housing sector. A number of important measures have been taken already aimed at improving housing viability and increasing supply, through the actions set out in Construction 2020 and the Social Housing Strategy 2020. The Urban Regeneration and Housing Act 2015, which commenced in September 2015, introduced a number of reforms in relation to, inter alia, Part V of the Planning and Development Acts; the retrospective application of reduced development contributions; and the introduction of a vacant site levy.

These measures were introduced to incentivise the development of vacant and underutilised sites for housing and regeneration purposes. Together, these legislative provisions are aimed at putting in place structural reforms of planning and land development processes that will support an increase in the output of housing to meet the needs of everyone in Ireland.

Given that these measures will take time to fully impact on supply, a comprehensive suite of shorter-term measures was put in place to improve the operation of the private rental sector and stimulate increased housing supply. Details of the full package of rent stability and housing supply measures, as set out in the document Stabilising Rents, Boosting Supply, are available on my Department’s website at the following link:

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I brought forward two major pieces of legislation to put the key elements of Stabilising Rents, Boosting Supply on a statutory footing, namely:

- The Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2015, which strengthens the status of aspects of planning guidelines issued to local authorities on planning matters to ensure their consistent application, particularly in relation to Apartment Standard Guidelines. It also streamlines the process for the making of modifications to Strategic Development Zone planning schemes; and

- The Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2015, which provides for an increased rent review period from one to two years , increased notice periods for rent reviews and greater protections for both tenants and landlords. These measures will bring much-needed stability to the rental sector pending the coming on-stream of the supply of new housing.

With regard to the supply of social housing, the Social Housing Strategy 2020 provides for 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 with flexibility to meet future demand. In total, 110,000 new social housing units are targeted for delivery with 35,000 new units to be delivered by local authorities and approved housing bodies, and 75,000 households to be supported mainly through the Housing Assistance Payment Scheme. The Social Housing Strategy 2020 can be found on my Department’s website at the following link:

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The Social Housing Strategy 2020 and associated funding of €1.7 billion under budgets 2015 and 2016 provided for the delivery of 13,000 social housing units in 2015, under a range of programmes, by local authorities and approved housing bodies. This represents an increase of 86% on the circa 7000 units delivered in 2014. The target for 2016 is again ambitious at 17,000 units.

Evidence that the Strategy is delivering can be found in the report, Social Housing Output in 2015, which I published on 26 January 2016. The report is available on my Department’s website at the following link:

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Moreover, the programme for rapid-delivery of 500 housing units for homeless families across Dublin continues to be implemented to mitigate the issues associated with an increasing volume of homeless families accommodated in inappropriate commercial hotel arrangements.