John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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318. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government following the publication of his action plan for housing and homelessness four months ago, the status of the progress made to date on action 2.13 to introduce an AHB innovation fund; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35063/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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A number of Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) have begun work on developing innovative financial models to fund their delivery of social housing. It is hoped that these efforts could potentially present the opportunity for delivery on a significant scale, while also meeting off-balance sheet requirements and achieving lower cost long term fixed price funding for AHBs.

To encourage and support further activity in this area, my Department established an Innovation Fund in April 2016 to support AHBs in their development of innovative financial models that would assist in improving the capacity of the sector. €300,000 has been provided in 2016 as a fund for which Tier 3 AHBs can apply. It is anticipated that further funding will be made available in 2017.

Access to funding is on the basis of formal applications made to my Department. Details of the fund were circulated in April 2016 and a further reminder issued in July 2016 calling for applications to be submitted for consideration. The closing date for receipt of applications was 1 November 2016. My Department is currently examining the applications received in line with the criteria set down in the call for proposals.

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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320. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government following the publication of his action plan for housing and homelessness four months ago, the status of the progress made to date on action 2.15 to establish a regulator for the AHB sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35065/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) have a key role in the delivery of social housing, as recognised in the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness. In this context, regulation is important in order to underpin stability in the sector, to better protect tenants and to safeguard public and private investment in AHBs and the assets developed through that investment.

In 2014, my Department established an interim Regulation Committee (iRC) under the auspices of the Housing Agency and supported by a Regulation Office within the Agency. The committee was set up to oversee implementation of the voluntary regulation code for AHBs, published in July 2013, and to advise on statutory regulation. To date, 243 AHBs have signed up to the voluntary code.

Recently, the Regulation Office published their second Annual Report. The annual report provides an overview of those AHBs signed up to the Code, insight as to the size, scale, ambitions and risk appetite of the sector; establishes and shares good practice; and identifies some of the challenges for AHBs arising from the regulatory assessments. A copy of the report can be found at the following link:.

Encouragingly, the number of AHBs that have now signed up to the Voluntary Code (243) represents 90% of all housing stock held by AHBs which means that some 26,900 AHB homes are now protected. Under the code, AHBs that have signed up to regulation are assessed in terms of their governance, financial viability and their performance in the provision of social housing.

While the code is voluntary at present, the development of a statutory regulatory framework has commenced with the General Scheme of the Housing (Regulation of Approved Housing Bodies) Bill 2015 approved for drafting by Government in September 2015. Pre-legislative scrutiny of the proposed Bill took place in December 2015. My Department is currently examining the recommendations of the Joint Committee as well as the stakeholder submissions on the General Scheme to ensure that the drafted legislation is reasonable, proportionate and appropriate to the differing needs of AHBs and serves to underpin a regulatory system that facilitates a growth of capacity and efficiency in the sector. It is expected that the legislation will be published in the first quarter of 2017.