Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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471. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the criteria used to allocate funding to local authorities for housing; the allocations to each local authority in 2016 and to date in 2017, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19923/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Funding is provided to local authorities under my Department’s Social Housing Capital Investment programme, to deliver additional social housing stock through new construction projects and through the acquisition of new and previously owned houses/apartments. Arising from the Social Housing Strategy, targets and provisional funding allocations were notified to each local authority from 2015 out to end-2017. These targets are available on my Department's website at the following link: . Now, with the increased national targets under Rebuilding Ireland, increased targets beyond 2017 will be set for all local authorities. These will be based on the results of the most recent statutory Summary of Social Housing Assessments, published in late 2016, so that delivery and resources can be aligned with the up-to-date priority housing needs locally. I anticipate these new targets for individual local authorities will be finalised later in Q2 2017.

In relation to the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP), this is now available to all eligible households throughout the State. HAP is a flexible and immediate housing support that allows households to find accommodation suitable to their needs in an area of their choice. While individual allocations are not made to local authorities under the scheme, Budget 2017 has increased funding for HAP from a provisional outturn of €57 million in 2016 to an Exchequer allocation of €152.7 million in 2017. This level of support  is currently providing  housing support to 20,700 households across all local authority areas, with more than 315 additional households being supported by the scheme each week. Rebuilding Ireland has set a target of supporting 15,000 additional households through HAP in 2017.

I have published a comprehensive status list of social housing schemes that are advancing nationwide, which can be accessed at the following link:  . This status report lists the 504 approved social housing construction projects and their locations and contains a range of information relating to their advancement, including those delivered in 2016 and those progressing through planning, design and construction. Funding is provided to local authorities in line with their advancement of projects through construction. Accordingly, the level of funding that was provided in 2016 and to be provided in 2017 to local authorities for their social housing delivery activity is directly linked to the scale of delivery they achieve on these projects. I am keen that these projects are advanced as soon as possible and have assured local authorities that funding is in place to support their activity in this regard.