Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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143. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government whether the full extent of the housing requirement has been identified in the greater Dublin area by reference to the number of families on local authority housing lists, those currently in private rented accommodation whose rent is higher than a mortgage and the normal annual expected requirement based on population increases; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28934/16]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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144. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the number of houses purchased in the last 12 months by the various local authorities in the greater Dublin area; the number allocated to families to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28935/16]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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145. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the number of local authority houses currently vacant in the various local authority areas in greater Dublin; if it is has been possible to reallocate such houses within a two to three week period; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28936/16]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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146. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the extent to which the capital plan for local authority housing remains on target; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28937/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 143, to 146, inclusive, together.

All local authority areas already have targets in respect of social housing delivery out to 2017 arising from the Social Housing Strategy 2020; those delivery targets have involved a combination of building, purchase and leasing schemes and good progress has been made to date on these, in particular in kick-starting a new pipeline of local authority and approved housing body construction projects and making targeted acquisitions to achieve early delivery. In Dublin City Council’s case, the target is 3,347 additional units to be delivered through build, buying, refurbishment and leasing programmes, supported by a funding allocation of almost €300 million.

Reflecting the increased targets of Rebuilding Ireland: An Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, new individual targets will be issued which will be based on the Summary of Social Housing Assessments 2016. The Assessment process is now well advanced and will provide updated figures of national housing need which will allow for social housing delivery and resources to be aligned with the up-to-date, priority housing needs locally. Following completion of the Assessments process by year end, I expect to be in a position to notify local authorities of their revised targets very early in 2017.

Of the 47,000 social housing units to be delivered under Rebuilding Ireland, an Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, it is estimated at this stage that approximately 26,000 will be constructed, while 11,000 will be acquired by local authorities and approved housing bodies directly from the market or the Housing Agency, with a portion of these being newly built units. 10,000 units will be leased by local authorities and approved housing bodies, which includes an estimated 5,000 units to be sourced from the NTMA Special Purpose Vehicle and a further 5,000 properties to be secured from a combination of the Repair and Leasing Initiative that will be piloted shortly and under long-term lease arrangements by local authorities and approved housing bodies from a range of different sources, not including Part V. This therefore includes a mix of units from the existing housing stock and newly built units. Overall, it is estimated that around 4,700 units could be secured for social housing from Part V agreements.  However, the final delivery will ultimately depend on many factors, including activity in the private sector, capacity of local authorities and approved housing bodies and readiness of projects.

Information on social housing units purchased in respect of all local authorities funded by direct capital investment by my Department is published on my Department’s website at the following link:

Data in relation to 2016 are currently being collated and will be published shortly. The allocation of properties to families is a matter for the local authority.

There will always be a level of vacant social houses. The number of vacant properties changes on a daily basis with local authorities having social units handed back and having units to be re-let.  The number of vacant units will therefore fluctuate constantly, as would be expected in the management of the thousands of homes owned by the local authorities, where tenants move out and move in all the time. The low rates of vacant units of 1-2% recorded in 2016 is a strong indication that the local authorities, through the additional provision of funding provided by my Department’s Vacant Social Housing Programme, have substantially addressed the back log that had accumulated pre-2014. This programme is in addition to the routine turnaround of vacant social housing stock which is a matter for each local authority under their on-going maintenance programmes.

Statistics on the average re-letting times for local authority social housing are set out in the report of the National Oversight and Audit Commission on Performance Indicators in Local Authorities, the last published report being for 2014, which is available at the following link:

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This does not capture information on the average refurbishment time taken by local authorities. Feedback from local authorities is that the time taken by them to turn around vacant social houses can vary from property to property, depending on the level of refurbishment required in each individual case. Delays may also result when offers of accommodation are turned down by prospective tenants.