Tony McLoughlin (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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318. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the reason no projects in counties Sligo and Leitrim were approved under the local infrastructure housing activation fund; his plans for projects in counties Sligo and Leitrim to be approved and funded in the future; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16255/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The aim of the Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (LIHAF) is to relieve critical infrastructural blockages in order to enable the accelerated delivery of housing on key development sites in urban areas with high demand for housing.  

A call for proposals was issued to all local authorities in August 2016. It was open to all local authorities to apply for funding towards the capital cost of the public infrastructure, which when provided, would secure the early delivery of additional affordable housing at considerable scale, with developments in excess of 500 units in the Dublin area, or in excess of 200 units in areas outside Dublin.

Twenty-one local authorities submitted a total of 74 proposals in October 2016. No proposals were submitted by Sligo County Council or Leitrim County Council.  It is likely that those authorities which did not choose to submit proposals may not have had enabling infrastructure projects that would have met the criteria for funding, such as the scope of proposals that would deliver housing developments at the scale of at least 200 units within the timeframe specified in the call for proposals.

On 28 March 2017, I announced funding for 34 projects under LIHAF. The cost of these projects is €226.46 million, of which €169.65 million would be funded under LIHAF with local authorities funding the remaining €56.81 million. These public infrastructure projects will be key to the delivery of 23,000 housing units over the next four years, with a longer term projection of up to 70,000 units as the selected sites are fully built out.