Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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245. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of houses his Department plans to build in County Donegal in the next five year period as part of his recently announced plans and housing strategy; his overall social housing strategy for County Donegal; the agreed targets and timelines with emphasis on the overall present housing need; the projected need for the next five year period for the county; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40069/17]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Rebuilding Ireland has put in place the funding resources to accelerate the delivery of social housing for all local authorities. Critically, €5.35 billion in Exchequer investment has been secured to support its implementation and to deliver 47,000 social housing units through build, refurbishment, acquisitions and leasing, over the period to 2021.

This level of national funding to implement Rebuilding Ireland's targets means that funding is available to all local authorities, including Donegal County Council, to advance their housing delivery plans. 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/refurbishments and a significant proportion of these will involve new construction.

A comprehensive status report 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, delivering 10,000 units, 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.

These 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 status report includes 24 construction projects of various scale in County Donegal involving over 300 new social homes. The precise timing for the advancement of each of these projects, including completion dates and tenanting, is a matter for the relevant local authorities and approved housing body concerned, in the first instance.

Further project approvals are being added to the construction programme as they are developed by local authorities and approved housing bodies, updated details of which will be published on a regular basis. 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.

In addition to these construction schemes, Donegal County Council acquired 100 new social homes in the period since 2015 and have made great progress in returning vacant properties to productive use to further accommodate people on their housing waiting list in the same period.

There are also a range of other social housing delivery methods that are being utilised alongside traditional construction, including securing new properties under long-term lease agreements, the Rental Accommodation Scheme and the Housing Assistance Payment, all of which will be used to meet the 21,000 social housing solutions targeted for delivery nationally this year. Overall in 2016, over 1,100 social housing solutions were delivered in the Donegal County Council area. A breakdown of this delivery is available on my Departments website at the following link:

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Arising from the Social Housing Strategy, targets and provisional funding allocation were notified to Donegal County Council in April 2015 that covered the period out to 2017. Now with the increased national targets under Rebuilding Ireland, increased targets beyond 2017 will be issued to local authorities. These will be based on the most recent statutory Summary of Social Housing Assessments, the results of which show that there were 91,600 households on local authority waiting lists as at 21 September 2016. Donegal County Council had 1,267 households qualified for social housing support, compared to 1,675 in 2013, a reduction of 24.4%.

It is essential that any new targets under Rebuilding Ireland are aligned with the results of the most recent Summary of Social Housing Assessments, so that delivery and resources can be aligned with the up-to-date, priority housing needs locally. I anticipate new targets for individual local authorities will be finalised and notified to each authority shortly.