James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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538. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the amount allocated from the local infrastructure housing activation fund to County Wexford; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52719/17]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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The first call for proposals under the Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (LIHAF) was issued to all local authorities in August 2016 and 34 projects received preliminary approval in March 2017.

Wexford County Council submitted one project under the call in October 2016, for the construction of the Whitemill/Clonard to Coolcotts inner orbital road in Wexford town. However, the project did not receive funding as it was assessed as low priority, given the LIHAF objectives and the range of other projects submitted for funding.

As part of Budget 2018, I announced an additional €50 million funding which will be available for a second LIHAF call and which will again be subject to matching funding of 25% by local authorities. This capital funding will facilitate the provision of more public infrastructure to unlock further sites and activate more housing supply.

A further call for proposals under LIHAF is likely early in 2018 and it will be open to all local authorities to submit new projects or resubmit previous unsuccessful projects for consideration at that time.