Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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As part of Budget 2018, I announced that an additional €50 million Exchequer funding will be available for a second Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (LIHAF) call. This will, as was the case in the original LIHAF call, be subject to matching funding by local authorities, where the Department will provide 75% Exchequer funding, with the Local Authorities themselves providing 25% matching funding. This will bring overall LIHAF funding to €266 million.

Following the first phase of submissions under LIHAF in late 2016, 29 projects have now proceeded to full approval and are at varying stages of design, procurement and construction of the infrastructure concerned, with most on track to complete the infrastructure in 2019 and with housing expected to be in place either in tandem with the infrastructure where possible or otherwise quickly thereafter.

There will be a further call for proposals under phase 2 of LIHAF towards the end of Quarter 1 2018. It will be open to all local authorities to submit new projects or resubmit previous projects for consideration at that time. Following assessment and selection of successful projects, it is expected that these LIHAF 2 projects would commence towards the end of 2018.