Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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348. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the amount each local authority has recouped from his Department for capital funded social housing units including new builds and acquisitions in 2015 and in 2016. [22349/16]

Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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384. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the funding announced for capital funding housing units that has been recouped by each local authority in 2015 and 2016; to date the number of units this funding has provided; and to provide a breakdown by each local authority area, [22797/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 348 and 384 together.

The table below sets out the Exchequer funding provided by my Department to local authorities in respect of the main capital programmes to support local authority new builds and acquisitions of new and previously owned housing and apartments in 2015 and to end-June 2016. This includes direct purchases, purchases under Part V arrangements and the delivery of turnkey projects by local authorities.

In relation to 2016, while not all local authorities have drawn down Exchequer funding from my Department up to this point under these particular programmes, all are pursuing the acquisition of new and previously owned housing and apartments and have construction projects being advanced. Some local authorities also fund the building and acquisition of social housing from their own resources such as local property tax receipts, in lieu of direct Exchequer funding. The latter spending is not reflected in the table below and explains certain cases where local authorities have not drawn down Exchequer funding in 2015 or to date in 2016.

Details on the number of social housing units acquired and constructed in respect of all local authorities and approved housing bodies is published on my Department’s website at the following link: .

Data in respect of quarter 1 of 2016 are currently being collated and will be published shortly; however, preliminary outputs show that between local authorities and approved housing bodies, over 200 units were completed through the construction and acquisition of units under my Department’s capital-funded programmes.

My Department also funds a number of regeneration projects around the country and these also give rise to new delivery of social housing, as part of programmes that improve conditions in the targeted social housing estates and support broader social and economic developments in the areas. Additionally, my Department’s capital programmes support local authorities in their work to return vacant social houses to productive use. In 2015, some 2,700 units were made available to those on the waiting list with funding support of €33m. In 2016, an amount of €24m has been made available to date to local authorities under this programme, with an initial target of 1,500 units to be addressed. Funding under both capital and current programmes is also provided to support the provision of new social housing by approved housing bodies.