Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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277. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of local authority housing starts recorded on a monthly basis over the course of the past two years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45474/17]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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278. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the extent to which the local authority housing stock has increased by way of purchase of extra houses or new builds; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45475/17]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 277 and 278 together.

Details in relation to social housing construction completions and acquisitions are available on my Department’s website at the following link:

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Information is available therein for 2016 and to the end of quarter 2 of 2017. Information on quarter 3 of 2017 is currently being collected and will be published as soon as possible.

While my Department does not publish statistics on the number of social housing construction starts on a monthly basis, a comprehensive status report is published on a quarterly basis in relation to of all social housing construction schemes for all local authority areas. The most recent of these reports, which covers the period up to the end of quarter 2 of 2017, it contains information on the delivery of 11,000 new social homes – currently approved and progressing through planning, design, and construction, as well as homes delivered in 2016 and to the end of quarter 2 of 2017. The report can be accessed at the following link:

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Further project approvals are being added to the construction programme as projects are developed by local authorities and approved housing bodies. I am keen that all local authorities advance their social housing construction programmes as speedily as possible and I have assured them that funding is in place to support their activity in this regard.