Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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54. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he is satisfied that AHBs have secured sites and funding to enable them to meet their revised new build targets for 2018 to 2021. [45345/17]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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The Government has put in place the funding required to accelerate the delivery of social housing across all local authority areas. In Budget 2018, I secured €1.9 billion for housing programmes, a 46% increase over 2017. This investment will ensure that over 25,000 households will have their housing needs met next year.

In addition to the significant increase in funding for 2018, I also secured a further €500m for investment in social housing in 2019-2021. The investment secured will allow for an increase in the overall level of social housing to be delivered by local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) under Rebuilding Ireland by a further 3,000 homes, increasing the overall target for social housing delivery under Rebuilding Ireland from 47,000 homes to 50,000, with the total funding envelope increasing from €5.35 billion to over €6 billion.

AHBs are tasked with making a significant contribution to the overall delivery of social housing in the years ahead, through a range of delivery mechanisms and funding programmes provided through local authorities and my Department, including the Capital Assistance Scheme (CAS) and the Capital Advance Leasing Facility (CALF). As it stands, roughly one third of the new supply of social housing is predicted to be developed by AHBs in the period to 2021. Joint working and collaboration at local level between local authorities and AHBs is critical to achieving this ambition. There are already a number of mechanisms in place to assist AHBs to realise their potential and deliver on their commitments including the recent establishment by the Housing Agency of a dedicated AHB Services Unit.

My Department continues to support and work with local authorities to develop their major housing development sites. At this point, all the sites have been mapped on the Rebuilding Ireland website, and all local authorities are in the process of finalising and submitting strategic development plans for their respective land bank for review and further consideration. It is expected that opportunities for additional AHB partnerships will be identified as part of this process.

My Department publishes comprehensive status reports on a quarterly basis of all social housing construction schemes for all local authority areas, showing details such as their locations and a range of information relating to their advancement. The most recent of these reports covers the period up to the end of quarter 2 of 2017; it contains information on construction schemes right across the country delivering 11,000 new social homes - currently approved and progressing through planning, design, construction. The report, which can be accessed at the following link:

This includes details of projects involving more than 4,500 new social houses to be delivered by AHBs.

In terms of access to land to underpin further delivery, clear engagement will be required between local authorities and AHBs in order to ensure that opportunities are taken to match available public lands with AHBs having capacity to bring forward projects. Local authorities are currently finalising management plans for the housing lands in their ownership, providing the vehicle for ensuring that such opportunities are realised.  In addition, AHBs can continue to pursue projects through turnkey arrangements on private lands.