Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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2054. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of social housing units that have been constructed in 2017 to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38618/17]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Details on the number of social housing properties constructed, purchased and leased by local authorities and approved housing bodies, for letting to those on their social housing waiting lists, are published on my Department’s website at the following link: . Information is currently being finalised in respect of quarter one of 2017 and will be published shortly, with information on quarter two 2017 to follow thereafter. 

A comprehensive status list of social housing schemes for all local authority areas can be accessed at the following link: . 

This status report covers the period up to the end of Quarter 1 of 2017 and lists 607 approved social housing construction projects, their locations and also includes a range of information relating to their advancement, including those delivered during 2016 and to the end of Quarter 1 of 2017, it also shows those progressing through planning, design and construction. Details in respect of Quarter 2 of 2017 will be published shortly on the Rebuilding Ireland website.

These 607 projects are funded under a range of different initiatives such as local authority construction, turnkey developments, rapid delivery, regeneration programmes and construction and turnkey developments by Approved Housing Bodies.  The precise timing for the advancement of each of these projects, including completion dates, is a matter for the relevant local authorities and AHBs concerned, in the first instance.  However, within the overall 21,000 social housing solutions targeted for delivery this year, some 4,500 of these will be delivered through new builds/acquisitions and a significant proportion of these will involve new construction. 

Further project approvals are being added to the construction programme as they are developed by local authorities and AHBs, details of which will be included in the next quarterly report under the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan. I am keen that all local authorities advance their social housing projects as speedily as possible and I have assured them that funding is in place to support their activity in this regard.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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2055. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of affordable housing units that have been acquired or constructed in 2017 to date; the location of such affordable house building by county; the definition of affordable housing by couples and individuals; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38619/17]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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In 2011, given the prevailing housing market conditions, the Government stood down the various Affordable Housing Schemes in operation at the time (the 1999 Affordable Housing Scheme, affordable housing provision under Part V of the Planning and Development Act 2000 and the Affordable Housing Initiative). Local authorities have been carrying a certain stock of unsold affordable houses, mainly acquired under Part V, which they generally have been renting to social housing tenants. A small number of affordable houses may have been sold by local authorities in recent years.

Housing affordability for individual households is a unique function of, inter alia, income, prevailing market prices and rents in different locations and access to funding and finance. There has been a very significant amount of research undertaken on this topic and, while there is no universally ideal price/rent to income ratio or minimum residual income requirement, there is broad agreement that ideally households should be spending no more than one third of their net income on housing costs over the longer term.

In terms of housing supply and other housing indicators, my Department publishes Monthly Housing Activity Reports that draw together the most up-to-date data on housing activity indicators, such as planning permissions, housing development site commencements, ESB connections, social housing output, and average residential purchase and rental prices. The latest monthly report can be accessed on the Rebuilding Ireland website at the following weblink: .

As signalled, the issue of housing affordability is being examined by my Department, including consideration of the latest data on household incomes, observed rents and house purchase prices, in the context of the ongoing focused review of Rebuilding Ireland . I expect this work to be concluded in the coming weeks and I will be considering the potential role of new initiatives in that context.