Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Local authorities now have substantial pipelines of approved new social housing construction projects, details can be seen in the quarterly Social Housing Construction Status Reports published by my Department. The most recently available report sets out the position as at end quarter 4 2017 and is available on the Rebuilding Ireland website at the following link:.

I am keen that local authorities advance all projects as speedily as possible and the funding is available to fully support their efforts in this regard. For example, to support the expansion of local authority social housing build and acquisitions programme, the funding available for 2018 has increased by over 43% compared with 2017 expenditure, with a funding provision of €639 million available this year.

Overall, the funding investment to support the implementation of the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan is over €6 billion with a total funding provision of €1.9 billion available to meet the housing needs of almost 25,500 households this year – this represents an increase of 36% over 2017 expenditure. The capital provision is €1.14 billion, to support the delivery of almost 5,900 new social homes through construction/refurbishment and acquisition of houses and apartments by local authorities and approved housing bodies this year.

My Department will continue to work closely with all local authorities in relation to increasing and accelerating the delivery of their construction programme, including through turnkey and rapid build initiatives.