Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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102. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the extent to which he expects to be in a position to offer continued scope for recovery towards resolution of the housing crisis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26374/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Government's Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness is focused on increasing supply, across all tenures, to achieve total housing output of at least 25,000 homes per year by 2021 and beyond, effectively doubling the output of 12,600 homes recorded in 2015.

Under Rebuilding Ireland, the target set out for social housing is to deliver 47,000 social housing units through build, refurbishment, acquisition and leasing over the period 2016 to 2021.  This is supported through a significantly increased investment programme of €5.35 billion, comprising €4.5 billion in capital funding and €844 million in support of programmes funded from current expenditure.  A further €200 million is provided for the Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund for investment in key enabling infrastructure to open up lands for early development.

While still at an early stage of implementation, there is already strong evidence that the focus on increasing and accelerating housing supply in Rebuilding Ireland is succeeding.  In 2016, the housing needs of over 19,000 households were met through a range of housing programmes, supported by expenditure of over €935 million.  A further €1.3 billion has been provided for 2017 to support the accelerated delivery of social housing and the achievement of the 2017 target to meet the housing needs of over 21,000 households.  

More broadly, housing construction trends are all showing strong positive growth, with planning permissions, housing development commencement notices and completions of new units, measured by the number of new ESB connections, all showing substantial increases on last year.  Almost 15,000 new homes were made available for occupation in 2016, an 18% increase on 2015 output.  The provision of new homes should continue to increase this year and beyond, driven by the combined effect of strong supply-side measures provided under Rebuilding Ireland, such as the Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund and the State Lands mapping project and the Help-to-Buy initiative. The ESRI has forecast in its Spring Quarterly Economic Commentary that housing completions will reach 18,500 during 2017.

Looking ahead, I have recently published the latest Status Report on Social Housing Construction Projects, which is available at the following link:http://rebuildingireland.ie/news/social-housing-construction-projects-report-2017/.  The report provides details of over 600 social housing projects, involving the construction of over 10,000 new social homes across the 31 local authority areas.  The scale of the construction pipeline, as at end-Quarter 1 2017, represents a major escalation in the social housing build programme and more projects are being added on an ongoing basis, to ensure we deliver on the Rebuilding Ireland targets.

Providing affordable, quality and accessible housing is a top priority for the Government.  Under the aegis of the Cabinet Committee on Housing, chaired by An Taoiseach, the Government and I will be keeping the implementation of Rebuilding Ireland under careful review.  The Third Quarterly Progress Report, for Quarter 1 2017, is being published today and is available at: www.rebuildingireland.ie.