Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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66. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the amount of funding each county will receive for the buy and renewal initiative and the repair and leasing initiative as part of the recently announced action plan for rural development; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4166/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Funding under the Buy and Renew initiative for social housing will be provided by my Department to local authorities, in line with their advancement of projects. Accordingly, rather than a pre-set allocation of funding for this year, the level of funding to be provided to local authorities will be directly linked to the scale of delivery they achieve on their projects. Any projects to be advanced under this initiative will need to be in areas that meet social housing need, as well as providing reasonable value for money. I have made an initial €25 million available for this initiative this year and propose to increase this to as much as €50 million in 2018, depending on the uptake. I recognise that such projects may be challenging to deliver and must therefore be balanced with the requirement to deliver social housing as early as possible and also bearing in mind the impact on local authority resources.

The Repair and Leasing Scheme has been developed to assist private property owners and local authorities or Approved Housing Bodies to harness the accommodation potential that exists in certain vacant properties across Ireland. The scheme is targeted at owners of vacant properties who cannot afford or access the funding needed to bring their properties up to the required standard for rental property. Over the period 2016 to 2021, it is anticipated that up to 3,500 units will be secured for social housing under this scheme and I have committed to making €140m available over that period.

The scheme was launched in Waterford and Carlow in early October 2016, on a pilot basis, and my Department is now working with local authorities to prepare for the wider national rollout of the scheme. While an amount of €6m had been made available for the scheme to deliver 150 units in 2016, I announced earlier today that I am now providing a further €26m to support the delivery of 800 units under the scheme in 2016. This brings to €32m the amount of funding I am making available for the scheme this year.      

Funding will be provided by my Department to local authorities in line with their progress under the schemes.  I am keen that local authorities work together with approved housing bodies in their own areas to maximise the potential of this scheme, and I have assured all local authorities that funding is in place to support their activity in this regard.