Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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277. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number and value of properties purchased by approved housing bodies on behalf of the State to address the housing crisis; and the value and quantity of same as of 1 December 2015, 2016 and 2017, by county, in tabular form. [52481/17]

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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280. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the criteria balance and checks that an approved housing body must adhere to when buying a property at a public auction; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52484/17]

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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281. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the criteria balance and check that an approved housing body must adhere to when purchasing a property from an auctioneer; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52485/17]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 277, 280 and 281 together.

There are two primary funding mechanisms provided by my Department to facilitate the purchase of properties for social housing purposes by Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs).

Under the Capital Assistance Scheme (CAS), funding of up to 100% of project costs may be advanced by local authorities to AHBs to provide accommodation for the elderly, homeless and people with disabilities.

My Department also provides financial support to AHBs in the form of a long term loan under the Capital Advance Leasing Facility (CALF) to assist with the financing of the construction or acquisition of units that will be provided for social housing use. This loan facility can support up to 30% of the eligible capital cost of the project, where the units will be provided by the AHB under long-term lease arrangements (known as Payment and Availability Agreements and funded by the Social Housing Current Expenditure Programme (SHCEP)) to local authorities for social housing use.

Both schemes are administered by local authorities, and funding advanced to AHBs is subsequently recouped from my Department in line with the terms and conditions of the relevant scheme.

Under both schemes, the demand for and suitability of the properties for social housing must be confirmed by the local authority. Where an AHB is seeking funding to assist them with the acquisition of properties under the CALF scheme an application for funding must be submitted to the Department. A financial evaluation is carried out by the Housing Agency on behalf of the Department prior to approving funding. Approvals also have regard to the acquisition price and submission of a market valuation for the property. It is important to note that under the CALF scheme, the loan is fully repayable by the AHB at the end of the term.

Regulation of the AHB sector is based on a Voluntary Regulation Code. The Housing Agency currently has responsibility, on an interim basis, for regulating AHBs. My Department is currently preparing legislation, the Housing (Regulation of Registered Housing Providers) Bill, which will put the current interim voluntary regulatory arrangements for the AHB sector on a statutory footing.

With regard to the number of units purchased by AHBs through schemes funded by my Department, information on delivery is published on the Department’s website at the following link:

www.housing.gov.ie/housing/social-housing/social-and-affordble/overall-social-housing-provision.

Delivery statistics are collated on a quarterly/annual basis so it is not possible to provide tabular information specifically to the date requested, i.e. 1 December for each of the years indicated. The following table below provides information on an annual basis by local authority area for 2015, 2016 and to end Q2 2017. Delivery under these schemes for Q3 2017 is currently being finalised and will be published shortly.

(*The negative value arises as a result of a revision to previous years data which is

accounted for in the year of the revision rather than by amending past results. **2017 data is subject to reconciliation at year end.)

Funding for the CALF and CAS schemes is drawn down by AHBs from local authorities, and subsequently recouped by local authorities from my Department. Depending on factors such as phased delivery, stage payment, and the time-lag between delivery and finalisation of claims, unit delivery and the incurring of costs at Department level may not occur in the same year.

In addition to the acquisitions listed, the CAS and CALF programmes also support AHBs to deliver new build units for social housing. The full range of delivery supported under these schemes is published on my Department’s website at the following link:

www.housing.gov.ie/sites/default/files/attachments/1a2-sh-2015-todate-brkdn-final_2017_v2.xlsx.

Total expenditure for the CAS and CALF schemes for AHB acquisition and build programmes over the period 2015-end Q2 2017 is set out in the following table.

Expenditure by year on full programme including Build and Acquisition schemes

I have made it very clear that I want to see a greater emphasis on direct building of social housing than was envisaged originally under Rebuilding Ireland. In 2018, we will see some 5,000 homes built, including 3,800 by local authorities and AHBs, and a strong pipeline is in place to assist in the delivery of these homes.

Since Q4 2016, my Department has also been publishing detailed quarterly updates on the status of all social housing build programmes, including the CAS and CALF schemes. The latest report, Q3 2017 is available on the Rebuilding Ireland website at the link below and shows significant progress in the expansion of AHB Build activity, particularly under the CALF scheme.

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Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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278. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of approved housing bodies; and the registered head quarters address of each. [52482/17]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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There are currently 547 housing bodies with approved status. The register of AHBs, which contains the details of their registered headquarters, can be found on my Department's website at:

www.housing.gov.ie/housing/social-housing/voluntary-and-cooperative-housing/register-housing-bodies-approved-status.

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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279. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the amount of funding approved for the various housing bodies nationally as of 1 December 2015, 2016 and 2017. [52483/17]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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There are a range of funding and delivery mechanisms available to local authorities to deliver social housing supports in partnership with Approved Housing Bodies, i.e. through the Capital Assistance Scheme, the Capital Loans and Subsidy Scheme, the Communal Facilities Scheme, the Approved Housing Body Mortgage to Rent Scheme, the Capital Advance Leasing Facility (CALF) and the Social Housing Current Expenditure Programme. The funding under these programmes is provided directly to local authorities, who in turn, advance the funding to approved housing bodies, as appropriate. It should be noted that CALF is a loan that is fully repayable with interest by the approved housing body.

The funding provided by my Department to local authorities in respect of the housing programmes listed above for the periods requested is set out in the following table. In order to match my Department's monthly accounting record of expenditure, the data provided is to the end of November for each year and includes amounts which were self-funded by certain local authorities from surplus Local Property Tax receipts.

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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282. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if an audit has been carried out of approved housing bodies; the areas of assessment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52486/17]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies is currently conducted through a Voluntary Regulation Code (VRC), titled Building for the Future, A Voluntary Regulation Code for Approved Housing Bodies in Ireland, which was published by my Department in July 2013. The following year, the Department established an Interim Regulation Committee (IRC) to oversee the implementation of the voluntary code for the sector, supported by a Regulation Office, based in the Housing Agency. This arrangement is a prelude to the establishment of a statutory regulator to oversee the effective governance, financial management and performance of the sector. My Department is currently drafting the legislation to set up this new statutory regime.

To date, 249 AHBs have signed up to the code, which represents 95% of the estimated 30,000 housing units in the sector. The code sets out key governance, financial and performance management principles, with which all of AHBs that have signed up are required to comply.

The IRC and Regulation Office assesses AHBs in line with their size, scope of activity and risk profile, and conducts a regulatory assessment of each of the AHBs, based on the completed Annual Regulatory Return, Financial Statements and other information provided by the AHB. The Office issues Regulatory Assessment Reports to each of the AHBs, where appropriate. Notwithstanding the provisions of the voluntary code, the administration and financial management of AHBs is still a matter for their individual Boards and it is their responsibility to ensure that they meet their existing statutory obligations in regard to financial reporting matters.