John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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546. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number and detail of requests for funding by each local authority under the serviced sites fund in 2018, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38883/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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A call for proposals issued under the Serviced Sites Fund (SSF) on 29 June 2018. The closing date for receipt of submissions was 31 August. €75 million of Exchequer funding is being provided under the SSF to provide enabling infrastructure to facilitate the delivery of affordable homes on local authority and Housing Agency sites, in or near centres where increasing house prices and rents have created a significant affordability gap for first-time buyers and for those wishing to rent.

The call for funding is being targeted initially at eleven local authorities, where it has been identified that there is a more pressing need for affordable housing. The local authorities initially targeted are the four Dublin local authorities; Kildare, Meath, Wicklow and Louth, and Galway City; Cork City and County Councils.

Funding will be capped at €30,000 Exchequer contribution per affordable home to be delivered. When combined with the local authority contribution of at least 25% of the cost of the infrastructure bid, this will generally bring the per-unit grant to a €40,000 maximum. On this basis, there is scope to provide grant funding to at least 2,500 affordable homes facilitated under the €100m Fund.

There is €20m public funding available this year and €26.7m in 2019. Nine local authorities have submitted a total of fifteen proposals, which are currently being assessed in my Department, with the aim of working toward completing the assessments and awarding funding next month. The table below provides outline detail of the submissions received. As indicated in the initial call for proposals, my Department will consider issuing a further call for proposals in relation to funding availability over the four years of the programme.