Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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372. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if his attention has been drawn to the large amount of finance that local authorities currently have in their Part V funds; and if he has given any direction to local authorities on the use of this significant pool of funding. [9960/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I am aware that local authorities have, historically, received funds as a means of satisfying the requirements of Part V of the Planning and Development Act 2000, an option which is now no longer available to developers. These funds must be used by local authorities for housing purposes; this could include improvement works; once-off works to local authority dwellings, that might include radon remediation, or extensions/adaptations; and co-funding of improvement works programmes for which exchequer funding is also provided, such as housing adaptations for people with disabilities and elderly people.  As the housing stock and the priorities of each local authority may vary, they have discretion to apply this funding in line with their own priorities.

This funding compliments the wider funding that is available through Exchequer programmes and which has been significantly increased under Rebuilding Ireland , with some €5.35 billion available to support delivery of social housing by Local Authorities and Approved Housing Bodies.  In that context, taking account of the results of the latest Statutory Summary of Social Housing Assessments conducted in late 2016, new social housing delivery targets for local authorities for the period beyond 2017 will be set in Q2 this year and, in that context, the use by local authorities of available Part V funds to support their housing programmes will be considered further.