Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

100. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the extent to which his Department can offer further latitude for immediate expenditure by the various local authorities on measures to address the housing crisis by way of direct build; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11016/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

With €5.35 billion in place under Rebuilding Ireland to support the delivery of social housing, the financial means are in place for local authorities to make immediate progress with their programmes of social housing construction. A substantial pipeline of new social housing construction projects, is already in place both in terms of local authority direct build and approved housing body projects. We are now seeing progress through this pipeline, as is evident in the Social Housing Construction Projects Status Report which I published on 20 February last. This lists all approved social housing construction projects, including those delivered in 2016 and those at various stages of advancement through planning, design and construction, and it can be accessed at the following link: .

For 2017, the budget for local authority direct build and purchase of new social housing has been increased by over 70% and given the scale of the new construction projects, I expect that to be fully spent. At individual local authority level, the level of funding to be provided will be directly linked to the scale and speed of delivery a local authority achieves on their projects. I am keen that all local authorities advance their social housing projects as speedily as possible and I have assured them that funding is in place to support their activity in this regard.