Declan Breathnach (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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1715. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government further to Parliamentary Question No. 245 of 22 November 2017, if he will address a series of queries (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54528/17]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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My Department has ongoing engagement with all the local authorities regarding the delivery of social housing through all funding streams.  This includes quarterly meetings of the technical staff, of both my Department and the local authorities, to review progress on all projects. These engagements can also involve site visits to review project activity at first hand. These quarterly meetings and the other ongoing contacts between the local authorities and my Department confirm delivery of projects and identify delays where these arise. As with all construction activity, a range of issues can give rise to delays with construction projects and in such cases, actions to avoid or minimise delays are explored between the technical staff.

In addition to my Department’s direct engagement with the local authorities, they also make quarterly statistical returns to my Department on their social housing delivery, including details of the construction schemes started and finished in their areas, as well as the number of new homes completed by the local authorities and approved housing bodies. These returns are collated and published on my Department’s website at the following link: . 

Statistics on the social housing delivery for the three local authority areas referenced by the Deputy are included in these statistics, from 2010 to the end of Quarter 3 of 2017. Information on Quarter 4 of 2017 is currently being finalised for publication.

The linking of delivery to the capital funding provided to the local authorities, is straightforward: funding to the local authorities from my Department is provided based directly on the costs incurred in the delivery of social housing. For example, the funding drawn down by a local authority over the course of a construction project is directly in line with the progress in the construction activity. For a housing acquisition, a local authority draws down funding when it has acquired the property.

My Department now publishes a quarterly Social Housing Construction Status Report, which lists all such projects that are on site, are undergoing planning and design, or have been completed since the commencement of Rebuilding Ireland. The latest Status Report is for Quarter 3, 2017 and is available on my Department’s website at the following link: .