Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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333. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if he will provide a list of land in public ownership or held in trust for the State, such as, but not exclusively, schools, third level institutions, local authorities, State and semi-State bodies in the constituency of Dublin North West. [16667/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Office of Public Works (OPW) has the central role in managing the State’s diverse property portfolio, and is responsible for co-ordinating policy in maintaining and efficiently organising the property asset portfolio of the State. However, I presume that the Deputy's question refers to lands in public ownership or held in trust by the State, specifically in the Dublin North West constituency, which may be suitable for housing.

The Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness sets out a number of actions to increase and accelerate housing delivery, across all tenures, to help individuals and families find homes. There is a broad suite of actions proposed under Pillar 3 of the Action Plan, entitled Build More Homes, which provides for the use of publicly owned land banks for provision of housing in a more pro-active and strategic way.

In particular, Action 3.5 of Rebuilding Ireland commits to the establishment of a centralised database of publicly owned lands, that are potentially suitable for the development of housing, whether by the State or by private sector housing providers.

Initially, the exercise involves identifying and mapping sites in local authority and public ownership, with appropriate lands to be master-planned to deliver increased mixed tenure housing, including social and more affordable homes, to meet demand.

The map will form part of the broader National Land Supply Management Strategy, which is being developed within the context of the new National Planning Framework, to be titled Ireland 2040: Our Plan. Once established, the map will be updated regularly to record the development and use of these lands, including those located in the Dublin North West constituency, to ensure that the best possible information is publicly available. The project is an iterative process and will be completed in phases.

Phase 1 of the mapping project is well underway and involves the mapping of approximately 700 sites in local authority ownership and those held by the Housing Agency under the Land Aggregation Scheme, showing their location, size, boundaries and other information. I expect to be in a position to publish this mapped data set, together with lands zoned for residential development, in the coming weeks.

Phase 2 of the project involves the mapping of other publicly owned lands with housing potential. In this regard, my Department is currently working with some of the associated key stakeholders of these lands to identify all potentially suitable sites, with the initial focus on lands in the main urban areas where demand is highest, i.e. Dublin, and the cities of Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford.

A third phase of the project will involve the mapping of local authority and approved housing body social housing construction projects. This will include new build projects under the Social Housing Capital Investment Programme, the Capital Assistance Scheme, the Capital Advance Leasing Facility as well as regeneration projects. 

At its heart, Rebuilding Ireland is focused on increasing and accelerating housing delivery, across all tenures. The active pursuit of housing provision on State lands, including local authority lands, will continue to be an important part of delivering on this overall ambition.