Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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1268. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government his plans to facilitate the urgent restart of development on house building sites throughout the greater Dublin area with particular reference to the urgent need to bring new houses onto the market as early as possible; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33668/17]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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1269. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the number of houses and new housing starts in each of the counties immediately adjacent to Dublin city and county over the past 12 months; the expectation in this regard in the next six months; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33669/17]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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The Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, published in July 2016, is particularly focused on increasing supply of new homes across all tenures, to achieve total housing output of at least 25,000 homes per year by 2020, effectively doubling the output of 12,600 homes recorded in 2015.

Rebuilding Ireland commits to the delivery of an additional 47,000 social housing units over the 6-year life-time of the plan for which a budget of €5.35 billion is in place.  Last year, €935 million was invested in providing some 19,000 social housing supports, through new builds, refurbishments and acquisitions as well as through the Housing Assistance Payment Scheme. In 2017, some 21,000 households will have their social housing needs met.

With regard to the wider housing market, under Pillar 3 of Rebuilding Ireland, a wide range of actions are already well advanced to increase housing supply significantly, including opening up State lands for housing; the €226m Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund; planning reforms; promoting more efficient design and delivery methods to lower housing delivery costs; and the review of costs of construction to identify potential efficiencies.

While we are still just one year into the 6-year Action Plan, there is already strong evidence that the actions set out in Rebuilding Ireland are yielding results.  The latest Monthly Housing Activity Report, published by my Department on the Rebuilding Ireland website, www.rebuildingireland.ie, shows that  house building is continuing to gather strength and pace. 

Planning permissions for 17,934 new homes were granted in the twelve-month period to end March 2017 (up 39% year on year). 6,497 of these were in Dublin with, 10,518 in the wider Greater Dublin Area (i.e. the four Dublin Local Authority areas plus Counties Kildare, Meath and Wicklow).

In addition, site Commencement Notices for 15,579 new homes nationwide were submitted in the twelve-month period to end May 2017 (up 42% year on year), of which 5,856 are in Dublin and 9,053 in the GDA.

The number of homes connected to the ESB Grid, a proxy for house completions, during the twelve month period to end May 2017 was 16,340, of which 4,633 are in Dublin while 7,047 are in the GDA.  This represents a year on year increase of 19% nationally and 33% in the GDA.  The expectation is that the number will reach 18,000/18,500 for 2017 as a whole.

Through the range of actions currently being progressed through Rebuilding Ireland to increase the supply of homes across all tenures, the Government has made considerable progress towards restoring a more sustainable and normally functioning housing market, which will be capable of providing homes at affordable price points to buy or rent, where and when they are needed. Nevertheless, I will be giving further consideration to housing supply and affordability issues in the context of the targeted review of Rebuilding Ireland which my Department has now commenced and which I hope to conclude in September.