John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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50. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of rapid build housing units that have been constructed to date as outlined in Action 1 of Rebuilding Ireland; the reason for the delays; the number of these units expected to be completed by the end of 2018; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19672/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Under Rebuilding Ireland, a total of 208 rapid delivery homes were completed by end 2017. There are currently some 24 further rapid delivery schemes, due to yield in excess of 653 social homes, at various stages of advancement, 283 of which are scheduled for delivery in 2018.

Many of the issues around delivery that ‘standard’ social housing construction projects face, are also faced by rapid build projects, such as preparing sites, services/access to the site, community consultation, planning, etc. There are, however, savings in terms of design and construction and these advantages are growing as more use is made of the Office of Government Procurement framework contract and contractors gain more experience in implementing these projects. Under this mechanism, acceleration is delivered both by the use of the Design and Build services of these contractors and reduced construction time periods due to considerable off site fabrication. This framework is available for all local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) to use.

While the framework, or indeed off-site construction, may not be suitable for all developments or sites, my Department continues to encourage and support local authorities and AHBs to consider the rapid delivery mechanism in the interest of accelerated delivery. In this regard my Department has organised information seminars for local authorities, as well as visits to rapid delivery projects under construction. Local authorities have been asked to consider, in particular, schemes which are suitable for early commencement, particularly in terms of their approved planning status.

In addition, Dublin City Council is developing a volumetric rapid build housing programme of apartment developments. This could yield in excess of 700 homes and my Department is working very closely with the Council to prioritise some of the larger apartment schemes, given the current demand.

Updated details in relation to the programme of rapid build projects are included in each Social Housing Construction Projects Status Report, which are published on a quarterly basis on the Rebuilding Ireland website; the most recent report setting out the position at end-2017, is available at the following link:

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The progress evident in this report, together with new build social housing achieved through Part V, ensured that 2,297 new build social housing homes were delivered in 2017, over three times the delivery in 2016 and very close to the 2,434 target set for 2017.

My Department will continue to work with local authorities to maximise delivery and harness appropriate opportunities to deliver on additional build units over the course of the Rebuilding Ireland Plan, including through rapid delivery schemes.