Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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136. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the extent to which adequate and urgent emergency housing will be provided for throughout County Kildare in 2017 in sufficient numbers to meet the demands of those currently in emergency accommodation in Kildare in adjoining counties whose application for rehousing are with Kildare County Council; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2450/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Funding is provided to local authorities under my Department’s Social Housing Capital Investment programme, to deliver additional social housing stock through new construction projects and through the acquisition of new and previously owned houses/apartments to accommodate persons on their housing waiting lists, including those in emergency accommodation.

There are also a wide range of funding and delivery mechanisms available to local authorities to deliver social housing in partnership with Approved Housing Bodies. These include the Capital Assistance Scheme and current-funded programmes, such as the Rental Accommodation Scheme,(RAS) Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) and various leasing arrangements under the Social Housing Current Expenditure Programme (SHCEP). Again properties provided under these programmes can be used to accommodate persons on their housing waiting lists to include those in emergency accommodation in Kildare and in adjoining counties whose application for rehousing are with Kildare County Council.

Arising from the targets that were initially set under the Social Housing Strategyand have been expanded as a result of Rebuilding Ireland, Kildare County Council has made proposals to my Department to construct new social housing developments which have been given funding approval. These are set out in announcements made in May 2015, July 2015 and January 2016 and available on my Department’s website at the following links:

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Subsequent to these announcements, a further 11 additional social housing units have been approved for Kildare County Council and added to their pipeline, including the provision of 8 units of accommodation at the former Dominican Priory Site in Athy costing an estimated €515,000 and the construction of 3 units of accommodation by the approved housing body KARE at Craddockstown, Naas.

A further 155 new social housing units for Kildare County Council are to be delivered through the public private partnership (PPP) model, at Butterstream, Clane (80) and Craddockstown, Naas (75).

During the course of 2016, I also provided over €19 million to Kildare County Council to purchase new and previously owned houses and apartments for use as social housing units. These approaches are delivering early social housing solutions for people on the waiting lists, while their construction programme ramps up.

In addition to capital funded projects, Kildare County Council has been collaborating with a number of AHBs to deliver additional social housing through the CALF (Capital Advance Leasing Facility) scheme. In 2016, there were 41 units delivered under the CALF scheme and a healthy pipeline of future delivery has been established, with approvals in place for the acquisition of a further 115 units across 9 projects. A further 12 units were secured by AHBs under SHCEP long term leasing arrangements and an additional 773 households were supported by HAP at the end of 2016. To November 2016, a total of 67 households were transferred from Rent Supplement to RAS in Kildare County.

In the case of all of these projects, including the continued roll out of HAP, I am keen that they are advanced as soon as possible and I have assured the local authorities that funding is available to fully support their efforts in this regard in 2017 and 2018.