Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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32. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the detail of the land that is owned by Galway city and county council and zoned residential; the location of those lands in the city and in the county; if that figure includes the lands transferred by the city or county under the land aggregation scheme; the figure for the lands transferred; the plans for those lands; the location of those lands; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2176/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Rebuilding Ireland: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness,which is available at, contains a number of integrated actions to underpin active land supply management for the delivery of housing. Initially, this involves identifying and mapping sites in local authority and public ownership with appropriate lands to be master-planned to deliver increased mixed-tenure housing, including social and more affordable homes, to meet demand.

The Housing Agency, in close consultation with my Department and local authorities, has already commenced the mapping of approximately 700 sites in local authority ownership and those held by the Agency under the Land Aggregation Scheme, showing their location, size, boundaries and other information. This includes information on all lands suitable for housing in the ownership of Galway City Council and Galway County Council, as submitted to the Housing Agency by the respective local authorities, as well as the site at Ballymoneen Road, previously in the ownership of Galway City Council, now held by the Housing Agency under the Land Aggregation Scheme (LAGS). This is the only site situated in Galway that is in the LAGS.

This map will form part of the broader National Land Supply Management Strategy (as committed to under Action 3.5 of Rebuilding Ireland), which is being developed within the context of the National Planning Framework (NPF). In this regard, an initial public consultation process will commence later this month with the aim of finalising the NPF later in 2017. Once collated, the map will be made available, and will be updated to record the development and use of these lands.

Furthermore, with regard to Land Aggregation Scheme lands, the Housing Agency is tasked with preparing a Strategic Management Plan for each of the sites held by it under the Scheme (as committed to under Action 2.7 of Rebuilding Ireland). This work will be completed in the first Quarter of 2017. With specific reference to the LAGS site at Ballymoneen Road, my Department has issued approval to Galway City Council for the construction of 69 social housing units of accommodation to be completed under two phases. Phase 1, which involves 14 units of accommodation, is currently at tender stage while Phase 2 of the scheme, to deliver a minimum of 55 units of accommodation, is at design stage.

Rebuilding Irelandalso proposes the development of new approaches to local authority housing strategies, as part of their statutory development plans, with a particular focus on the selection of privately owned sites for delivery of starter homes at affordable prices to meet housing needs across their area, across tenures and house types, as well as meeting the social housing requirements.