Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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368. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government to provide a breakdown of the 1,477 social housing current expenditure programme units (details supplied) operational in 2015. [12765/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Social Housing Current Expenditure Programme (SHCEP) (formally the Social Housing Leasing Initiative) was announced in February, 2009. Since then the Programme has been expanded a number of times to provide for new types of supply and to involve a greater range of agencies and bodies in providing accommodation. SHCEP currently supports the delivery of social housing by providing financial support to local authorities for the longterm leasing of houses and apartments from private owners, developers, Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) and the NAMA Special Purpose Vehicle, NARPS (National Asset Residential Property Services Ltd). Lease arrangements vary between ten and thirty years in duration and my Department recoups to local authorities the cost of the agreements that are made.

In addition, local authorities have the option to lease vacant and unsold affordable units to AHBs with the units concerned being made available to households eligible for social housing support. The interest on the loans associated with these units is recouped to local authorities by my Department under the SHCEP. The rationale for using unsold affordable units to accommodate social housing tenants in the short to medium term is to match existing vacant housing stock available to local authorities with social housing need.

In 2015, 1,477 new units became operational under the SHCEP and were made available to local authorities for social housing. The following table breaks down the ownership of the new units that became operational under SHCEP in 2015. My Department does not record information in relation to the previous use of properties coming under the SHCEP for the first time. All properties made available under the Programme are used to accommodate households from local authority waiting lists and are allocated by local authorities to tenants, in accordance with the relevant local authority’s allocation scheme.