Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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66. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his views on whether local authorities are suitably resourced with the relevant personnel, for example, architects, planners, engineers and so on, to deliver sufficient social housing as a matter of urgency; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19696/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Under section 159 of the Local Government Act 2001, it is the Chief Executive of each local authority who is responsible for the staffing and organisational arrangements necessary for carrying out the functions of the authority.

My Department works closely with all local authorities and staffing sanction requests are dealt with on a case-by-case basis with priority given to housing-related posts, as well as those relating to health and safety and economic development. In that context, since 1 January 2015, my Department has received 820 housing-related staff sanction requests from local authorities, 793 of which have been approved, with 27 pending. Additional supports are also being made available to local authorities to meet staffing costs associated with the delivery of their social housing build programmes.