Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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42. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the total number of new local authority housing starts completed or under way in the past 12 months; the number of houses provided via approved housing bodies in the same period; the extent to which the number of applicants on local authority waiting lists have been affected by the house building programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8946/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Details on the number of new social homes constructed or purchased by all local authorities and by AHBs for letting to those on their social housing waiting lists for the first three quarters of 2016 are available on my Department’s website at the following link:

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Information in respect of the full year of 2016 is currently being finalised and will be published shortly. The need to increase and accelerate the delivery of social housing for those on the waiting list is a key focus of the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, which provides for an ambitious social housing programme of 47,000 units to 2021 with funding of €5.35 billion. The delivery against this target is already underway and in 2016, we saw 18,380 social housing supports provided nationally, with expenditure of €935 million on housing during the year. This exceeded the target of 17,240 for 2016, giving a very positive start to the challenge of meeting the ambitious targets in Rebuilding Ireland. In 2017, it is planned to deliver social housing supports to at least 21,000 households.