Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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122. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if, in view of the urgent need to meet public housing demand throughout the country, all efforts might concentrate on the provision of a targeted number of local authority housing in each local authority area within the next 12 months and postpone further auditing of numbers on local authority waiting lists until at least 25% of the existing need is met thereby enabling local authority officials to concentrate on the priority of meeting the existing needs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25143/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy may know, the Summary of Social Housing Assessments (SSHA) was traditionally carried out every three years. A commitment was given in the Social Housing Strategy 2020 (published in 2014) to move to producing the SSHA on an annual basis from 2016 onwards. This commitment has been advanced, as it was felt that it was imperative that the SSHA be carried out every year because the provision of housing is a demand led service and it is vital to have regularly updated information on the scale and nature of demand.

The undertaking of the SSHA on an annual basis will assist in providing a more strategic picture of the dynamic numbers applying for social housing support and emerging trends. This approach will ensure that vulnerable groups in particular are accurately reflected within the assessment process, particularly in light of their additional support requirements. It will also ensure the changing formulation of households, with the increasing number of older people and people with special needs living independently in our communities, is reflected in the SSHA.

A key issue is to ensure that housing needs can be broken down into sub-groups, so that social housing delivered matches more closely the profile of those in need. Rebuilding Ireland has ambitious targets to deliver a range of housing across the public and private spectrum and the data obtained from the SSHA is of crucial importance in ensuring that the right type of housing is delivered in the right areas for the right people.