Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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118. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the degree to which he continues to have discussions with the various local authorities adjacent to Dublin with a view to meeting the emergency needs of persons being displaced from their homes through no fault of theirs who find themselves in need of emergency accommodation; if his attention has been drawn to the serious shortage of such accommodation in counties such as Kildare; his plans to meet this challenge; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25139/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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My Department continues to work closely with housing authorities in the areas most affected by deficits in housing supply to ensure that they are making every effort possible to meet the emergency accommodation needs of households presenting to them.

My Department’s role in relation to homelessness involves the provision of a national framework of policy, legislation and funding to underpin the role of local authorities in addressing homelessness at local level. One of the five pillars of the Government's Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan on Housing and Homelessness is focused specifically on addressing homelessness and sets out a range of integrated measures through which local authorities, other public bodies, approved housing bodies and other relevant organisations are responding to the homelessness challenge. Ultimately the solution rests in achieving a significant increase in housing supply, particularly in relation to social housing in respect of which 47,000 units of accommodation are to be provided over the period to 2021, supported by €5.35 billion in funding.

Statutory responsibility in relation to the provision of homeless services, including accommodation, rests with individual local authorities. The purposes for which housing authorities may incur expenditure in addressing homelessness are prescribed in Section 10 of the Housing Act 1988. The funding needs of the various housing authorities are kept under review on an ongoing basis. In Budget 2017, the Government approved funding of almost €98 million for homelessness, compared to an initial provision of €70 million last year, €53 million in 2015 and €45 million in 2014.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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119. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the extent to which the local authority housing building programme is being augmented in the counties adjacent to Dublin in order to ensure the availability of adequate housing support in the short term for those on local authority waiting lists over a long period and those now coming onto such lists as a result of bank repossessions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25140/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Rebuilding Ireland has put in place both the targets and funding resources to accelerate the delivery by 2021 of 47,000 social homes. This work is already well underway and we are increasingly seeing new social housing construction projects move onto site.  I recently published the latest update of the Status Report on Social Housing Construction Projects, which now includes over 600 social housing construction projects, delivering over 10,000 social housing units. This is available at the following link: .

The construction projects listed in the Status Report are either on site, at different stages of planning and design or have recently been completed.  As would be expected, given housing need, the Dublin area local authorities and those adjacent to Dublin feature very strongly in this construction programme. The same is true in relation to the delivery in the greater Dublin area of social housing through other means, which are also being vigorously pursued through the resources available under Rebuilding Ireland. This includes the acquisition of houses and apartments, the long-term leasing of homes by local authorities and AHBs for social housing use, including via the National Treasury Management Agency’s Special Purpose Vehicle and the Repair & Leasing Initiative, and the accelerated rollout of the Housing Assistance Payment Scheme.

Further new social housing projects are being added to the delivery pipeline on a continuous basis and I am keen that all local authorities advance these projects as speedily as possible. This delivery will continue to be weighted in line with housing need and this can be particularly seen in relation to the rapid delivery programme, where a number of build projects are on site in the greater Dublin area that will deliver 200 new social homes over the coming months, with work already underway on advancing a further round of projects.