Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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607. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the number of houses purchased by approved housing bodies in 2015. [29665/17]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) acquire houses with assistance from my Department and also using their own private finance arrangements. I can only provide information in relation to such acquisitions, as were assisted by my Department. There are two such schemes: the Capital Assistance Scheme (CAS) provides funding in respect of the costs of purchasing accommodation to meet special housing needs and 112 units were acquired by AHBs under this scheme in 2015. The Capital Advance Leasing Facility (CALF), which assists AHBs with the financing of the acquisition of units that will be provided for social housing use, is a loan facility that supports up to 30% of the eligible capital cost of the project, where the units will be provided under payment and availability arrangements to local authorities for social housing use. The balance of funding requirements is sourced by the AHB, predominantly from low cost borrowings from the Housing Finance Agency. In 2015 AHBs were provided with funding to support the acquisition of an additional 442 units under the CALF scheme.

In addition to the acquisitions outlined above, AHBs also constructed 270 new units using CAS funding and 31 new units using CALF support. Details of all social housing output in 2015 is available on my Department's website at .