Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

223. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the details of the home acquisition programme, by homes purchased by local authorities, by amount paid, by amount invested in homes before letting them, by homes managed by local authorities, for each local authority, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18451/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The table sets out the funding provided by my Department to local authorities for the acquisition of new and previously owned housing and apartments for social housing from 2014 to end May 2016. This includes direct purchases, purchases under Part V arrangements and the delivery of turnkey projects. Some local authorities also fund acquisitions from their own resources such as local property tax receipts and that spending is not reflected in the table. In relation to 2016, while not all local authorities have drawn down funding from my Department up to this point, all are pursuing the acquisition of new and previously owned housing and apartments.

It should be noted that details on the numbers of social housing units purchased across all local authorities is published on my Department’s website at the following link:

www.environ.ie/housing/social-housing/social-and-affordble/overall-social-housing-provision.

Data in respect of quarter 1 of 2016 is currently being collated and will be published shortly . However, preliminary outputs for the period indicate that over 200 units have been completed by local authorities, through either construction or acquisition of units under my Department’s local authority housing programme.