Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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35. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government his plans to seek more funding to purchase more units in view of the fact that banks (details supplied) have offered the State up to 1,000 vacant houses for purchase yet to date the Government has only provided money for the purchase of 200; the amount of funding; and the number of additional units. [2143/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Under Actions 2.5 and 5.6 of Rebuilding Ireland: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness,the Housing Agency is actively and positively engaged with banks and investment companies in relation to its acquisitions programme.  €70m is being provided to the Agency in 2017 to establish a revolving fund to acquire some 1,600 units over the period to 2020 for social housing use. The fund will be replenished by the Agency through the sale of units to Local Authorities and the Approved Housing Body sector at cost.

Once properties have been offered for consideration to the Agency by banks or investment companies, the Agency co-ordinates with local authorities regarding their local social housing requirements.  This is an on-going process and the Agency is continuing to liaise with local authorities on lists of properties provided by banks, investment funds etc. Not all properties offered are deemed suitable. Unsuitable properties may be located in areas with no social housing demand or may be physically or financially unsuitable (for example, poor quality dwellings or dwellings above price limits). They may also have been located in areas which were deemed to have sufficient social housing already. It should also be noted that properties can be withdrawn during the process by the vendor due to legal or other issues.

Since the launch of Rebuilding Irelandin July, the Agency has fully completed the purchase of 27 additional properties and has signed contracts to purchase a further 160 properties.  It is expected that these acquisitions will be fully completed in January or early February 2017.  In total, therefore, the Agency has completed or signed contracts for a total of 187 properties since the launch of the Action Plan.Further details of the progress under this initiative will be outlined in future Rebuilding Irelandquarterly progress reports.