Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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729. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if specific funding will be allocated to a local authority to carry out necessary improvement works in a housing estate (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53622/17]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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The taking-in-charge of housing estates is a matter for the relevant local authority under section 180 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 (as amended).

My Department launched the National Taking-in-Charge Initiative (NTICI) in April 2016 to support and accelerate overall national and local action on the taking-in-charge process of housing estates, including estates with developer-provided water services infrastructure (DPI). The initiative was set up on a time-bound basis in order to both better understand and stimulate the taking-in-charge process, due to the backlog of estates waiting to be taken in charge. Under the terms of the NTICI, which was underpinned by €10m in funding, developments subject to valid taking-in-charge applications were eligible for inclusion in the call for funding proposals under Circular FPS3/2016 (available at the following link: ).

My Department established a Steering Group to oversee the initiative including funding allocations. The Steering Group selected the following seven local authorities for demonstration projects - Cork, Clare, Donegal, Galway, Kerry, Tipperary and Wexford - as these represented about 70% of problematic housing estates nationwide served by Developer Provided Infrastructure (DPI).

A total of €7.7 million of the allocated funding was paid to local authorities in respect of 330 developments, containing some 13,400 units.

While the NTICI was not intended as a rolling funding programme for taking estates in charge but provided instead a focused examination of the issues involved, building on the lessons learned through this programme, I expect that the Initiative will contribute to further streamlining of the taking-in-charge process, through for example synergies with capital works by Irish Water. In addition, the outcome of the Mid-Term Review of the Capital Plan provides for an additional €25m funding to be provided for addressing legacy issues in relation to lead pipe remediation and developer provided infrastructure, details of which will be announced in due course.

A report on the 2016 NTICI is currently being finalised by my Department which will help to inform future taking-in-charge plans. It is envisaged that the report will be published in Q1 2018.

As Monaghan was not one of the local authorities selected to pilot new approaches to speed up the taking-in-charge process under the NTICI, funding was not available under the NTICI in this case. Nevertheless, publication of the NTICI report in Q1 2018 will be of value to local authorities and other stakeholders in applying the lessons from the pilot authorities in a more general roll-out of a streamlined approach to taking in charge.