Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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25. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his plans to introduce a pilot scheme using the cost rental model developed by an organisation (details supplied) on one or more of the sites owned by local authorities in consultation with the relevant local authority and local residents groups; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52067/17]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Reports such as the one produced by the organisation concerned are an important addition to the debate on housing in Ireland. I note that there is considerable common ground and consensus between this Report and the Government’s Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness and the Strategy for the Rental Sector.

As part of the review of Rebuilding Ireland, my Department has examined housing affordability and the optimal use of publicly owned lands for accelerating housing supply. Recognising that delivering cost rental is a key part of the solution to the affordability challenge, work is underway to identify potential local authority sites for cost rental projects, in areas of high housing demand and high accommodation costs.

In this regard, the Housing Agency and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, in conjunction with approved housing bodies, are bringing forward a pilot cost-rental project on a Land Aggregation Scheme site on the Enniskerry Road. Full details of the project will be announced in due course.

The Government remains fully committed to tackling the affordability and access gap that many low- to middle-income households are experiencing, particularly in areas of the country with the highest rents and purchase prices. I expect to announce full details of further initiatives in this regard shortly.