Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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319. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the detail of the allocation of funds to Galway County Council and Galway City Council for housing in 2016; the amount actually remitted to the two councils respectively for housing in 2016; the number of new units built and completed with this money; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4611/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Rather than annualised allocations, funding for the delivery of new social housing is provided as local authorities advance projects or acquire housing. It is only certain programmes for the improvement of existing stock for which annual allocations are provided to local authorities. In respect of the provision of new social housing, 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 and apartments to accommodate persons on local authority social housing waiting lists.

Arising from the Social Housing Strategy, targets and provisional funding allocations were notified to each local authority , including Galway City and Galway County Councils, from 2015 out to end-2017. These targets are available on my Department’s website at the following link: .

The Galway authorities have a combined target of 1,126 social housing units to end-2017, supported by an allocation of €58.5m, to be invested in a combination of building, buying and leasing schemes.

Following on from the notification of these targets, approvals for a substantial number of new social housing projects have issued, details of which are available on my Department’s website at the following links: -

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These include over 270 new housing units in respect of the Galway authorities, supported by investment of some €45 million. Additional projects in respect of Galway County Council that have also been approved which are not listed at the above links are:

In addition to the above projects, under the €300 million public private partnership (PPP) model for new social housing, 73 new units are earmarked for a site at Ballyburke in Galway City.

As well as capital-funded projects, the Galway local authorities have also been collaborating with a number of AHBs to deliver additional social housing through the CALF (Capital Advance Leasing Facility) scheme. In 2016, there were 15 new social homes delivered in this way and a healthy pipeline for future delivery is in place, with approvals made for the delivery of a further 204 units across 9 projects by AHBs.

I am keen that all local authorities advance all of these projects as soon as possible and I have assured them that funding is available to fully support their efforts in this regard.

In 2016, capital funding for housing delivery by Galway City Council was self-funded from their local property tax receipts. A total of €2,173,786 of self-funding was expended across a range of capital housing programmes, with €607,625 of this contributed towards their local authority housing construction and acquisition programmes. My Department provided €1,230,910 to Galway County Council to support them in the delivery of their local authority housing construction and acquisition programmes, with a further €3,199,866 provided for projects by AHBs under my Department’s Capital Assistance Scheme.

In respect of the number of new units built and completed with this funding, my Department publishes a wide range of statistical information on housing delivery, including information on social housing units constructed and acquired in respect of all local authorities and AHBs. This is published on my Department’s website at the following link: .

The information on the website is currently provided up to the end of quarter 3 of 2016; information for the last quarter of 2016 is currently being finalised and will be published shortly.