Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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93. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if he will request the housing agency to conduct a report on the all-in cost of providing private sector houses and apartments, comparisons of costs here with other OECD countries, and policy recommendations to Government on the best way to bring down the cost of providing private sector homes. [35449/16]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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160. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the extent to which he and his Department continue to monitor the cost of house building with particular reference to the need to ensure that house prices do not return to the unsustainable levels experienced before the economic collapse; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35593/16]

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 93 and 160 together.

Under the , the Government is committed to a broad range of measures to tackle, among other things, some of the costs associated with the provision of housing in the interests of reducing construction overheads. This includes undertaking a detailed analysis, in conjunction with the construction sector, to benchmark housing delivery input costs in Ireland, in order to facilitate an increased level of housing output into the future. A working group, chaired by my Department, will begin work on this task over the coming weeks with representatives from the Construction Industry Council.

My Department has also input into work led by the Department of Finance in relation to construction costs which was undertaken under the Construction 2020 Strategy. In addition, costs are examined in the context of proposed legislative changes, particularly in relation to Building Regulations, and a cost benefit analysis and regulatory impact analysis is carried out on any proposed amendments.

In the context of social housing provision, my Department undertakes analysis in respect of the average costs associated with the delivery of a range of differently sized social housing units, both in terms of construction costs and ‘all-in’ costs. These costs are based on an analysis of returned data from local authorities on social housing schemes and this is kept under constant review.

Further measures taken by my Department to bring down the cost of providing private sector homes include the €200 million Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (LIHAF), which will provide much-needed enabling infrastructure on key sites to open up lands for development from early 2017 onwards.

In addition, the NTMA, through the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF), is developing proposals to offer competitive financing on a commercial basis, and in line with ISIF’s statutory mandate, to meet other infrastructure requirements on large development sites.