Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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484. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of houses and new housing starts in each of the counties immediately adjacent to Dublin city and county over the past 12 months; the expectation in the next six months; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20084/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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My Department publishes a range of datasets relating to housing market activity on the statistics area of its website.  Details of commencement notices received by each of the 31 local authorities are published as a monthly series which can be accessed through the following weblink: .

The latest Monthly Housing Activity Report (March 2018), which is available on , is showing continued positive trends in residential construction activity and is evidence that the targeted supply-side interventions under Rebuilding Ireland are beginning to work. The report includes, where available, sub-totals for the Mid-East area which comprises the counties of Kildare, Meath and Wicklow. The most recent headline figures show that:

- In the year to end February 2018, commencement notices for over 18,500 new homes were submitted nationally, an annual increase of 41%. 3,172 of these were in the Mid-East Area, representing an annual increase of 45% in that region. 

- Planning permissions for 20,776 homes were granted to end-December 2017, up 27% year on year. 4,530 of these were in the Mid-East Area, representing an annual increase of 72% in that region. 

- In the year to end February 2018, Registrations for Homebond, an insurance scheme that relates primarily to multiple unit housing schemes, totalled 9,521, an annual increase of 46%. 2,279 of these were in the Mid-East Area, representing an annual increase of 40% in that region.  

The next Monthly Housing Activity Report is expected to be published shortly.

Finally, as regards the outlook for the coming years, all indicators and estimates point towards a continued increase in output.  For example, the Central Bank in its Quarterly Bulletin (Q2 2018), which is available at the following weblink: , forecasts that both housing and non-residential building should continue to recover strongly. The Bank has forecast growth for the construction sector as a whole of 14.8% and 11.7% for 2018 and 2019, respectively.