Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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255. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of local authorities that have lands within their possession that are serviceable or serviced on which local authority and affordable houses can be started as a matter of urgency; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39318/18]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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259. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the extent to which in order to plan for future housing needs a calculation has been done as to the precise number of local authority and affordable houses required on an annual basis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39322/18]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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262. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of contractors available to undertake local authority or affordable housing construction in County Kildare; when such works will start in view of the large number of applicants on the waiting list; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39325/18]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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263. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the emergency measures he will take to make an immediate impact on the housing shortage with particular reference to local authority and affordable housing in the counties immediately adjacent to Dublin such as County Kildare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39326/18]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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264. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the degree to which he continues to have discussions with Kildare County Council with a view to action likely to make a major impact on the housing situation with particular reference to ensuring the availability of sufficient new housing starts in order to meet the requirements of the affordable and local authority housing sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39327/18]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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265. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the lands now immediately available in the counties adjacent to Dublin to facilitate immediate local authority and affordable housing starts; the extent to which planning requirements in this regard have been complied with; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39328/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 255, 259 and 262 to 265, inclusive, together.

The active management of the publicly owned housing land bank continues as a key part of a range of complementary actions being progressed under the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, designed to accelerate and increase housing output. To this end, details of some 1,700 hectares of land in local authority and Housing Agency ownership were published on the Rebuilding Ireland Housing Land Map, with the potential to deliver some 42,500 homes nationally. This includes circa 135 hectares in the functional area of Kildare County Council. These mapped sites can be viewed at the following link:

.

Local authorities will continue to maximise the use of publicly owned lands for social housing, affordable purchase, and cost rental.

In addition to the active management of the publicly owned land bank, assessments of population and housing need are required. The Summary of Social Housing Assessments is conducted annually, specifically assessing the social housing needs of the population. The 2018 summary which has been published this week and is available on the Department's website, show that 71,858 households were assessed as qualified and being in need of a social housing support as of 11 June 2018; this represents a decrease of 13,941 households or 16% on the last assessment in June 2017. Indeed, since Rebuilding Ireland, the numbers of those waiting on social housing homes, has dropped from 91,600 to 71,858. In Kildare, there has been a 22% in 2018 in the number of households qualifying for social housing support, down from 5,103 households in June 2017 to 3,962 in 2018.

With specific reference to Co Kildare, the Council has prepared the Kildare County Development Plan 2017-2023, which seeks, amongst other things, to address housing needs specific to Kildare, particularly in section 2.8 - Population and Housing Growth. The plan is available at the following link:

www.kildare.ie/countycouncil/Planning/developmentplans/KildareCountyDevelopmentPlan2017-2023/.

Also, an overall Housing Need Demand Assessment (HNDA) will be required to be undertaken in future planning, in accordance with the vision as set out in Project Ireland 2040 and the National Planning Framework.

With regard to social housing delivery in County Kildare, this data is published quarterly. The most recent report which I published today, reflects the position at the end of Quarter 2 of 2018 and is available on the Rebuilding Ireland website at the following link:

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This latest report shows 544 homes added to the social housing stock in County Kildare through build, acquisition and leasing in the first six months of this year.

Regarding affordable housing, a multi-pronged approach is being pursued, targeting households on low to moderate annual gross incomes of maximum €50,000 for a single applicant and maximum €75,000 for joint applicants.

In terms of affordable housing for purchase, the relevant provisions of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 have now been commenced.

In terms of affordable rental I am determined that cost rental homes become a major part of our rental landscape in the future, making a sustainable impact on housing affordability, national competitiveness, and the attractiveness of our main urban centres as places to live as well as work. Two cost rental projects have previously been announced for Emmet Road, Inchicore, and at Enniskerry Road, Dundrum. On foot of these pilots, cost rental will be rolled out across other suitable sites.

In order to support local authorities to get their sites ready for affordable housing, I am providing Exchequer funding of €75 million for enabling infrastructure via the Serviced Sites Fund over the four years to 2021. When local authority co-funding is included, an overall minimum investment of €100 million will be available under the Fund to offset the costs of providing both on-site and off-site enabling infrastructure for sites in order for them to be brought into use for affordable housing.

A total of €15 million Exchequer funding has been allocated for 2018, to which the local authority minimum contribution of €5 million will be added. This should enable the provision of infrastructure for some 500 affordable homes this year, based on a maximum level of €40,000 infrastructure investment per home. The bids that have been received from 9 local authorities, including from Kildare County Council, under the first call are now being assessed, and I expect to make initial funding awards next month.

From engagements with the local authorities in Dublin, the wider Greater Dublin Area as well as Cork and Galway cities, their initial estimates suggest that they have lands with the potential to deliver some 4,000 new affordable homes. My Department is continuing to work with the key local authorities and the Housing Agency to identify sites for at least 10,000 new affordable homes from local authority owned land.

In addition, the Government has now launched the Land Development Agency, which will be aiming to deliver some 150,000 new homes over the next 20 years. The new Agency has an immediate focus on managing the State’s own lands to develop new homes, and regenerate under-utilised sites, and will deliver at least 40% of any housing potential on such lands for both social and affordable housing purposes.

My Department is continuing to work with all local authorities and State bodies to ensure that housing is delivered from appropriately located and publicly owned sites to meet our current and future housing requirements.

My Department does not maintain a record of private contractors. Rather, construction tenders are publicly available online at www.etenders.gov.ie, where contractors may tender for public construction work available in local authority areas.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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256. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will address the issue whereby applicants for local authority and affordable houses are excluded from the local authority housing lists on the basis of excessive income and excluded from Rebuilding Ireland loans on the basis of insufficient income; if regulations to address this issue will be introduced as a matter of urgency; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39319/18]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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257. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the steps he will take to address the housing need of extra applicants for affordable and local authority housing in view of housing repossessions by lending institutions in respect of buy to let developments and individual households; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39320/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 256 and 257 together.

The income eligibility bands for access to social housing support, and the authority area assigned to each band were based on an assessment of the income needed to provide for a household's basic needs, plus a comparative analysis of the local rental cost of housing accommodation across the country. It is important to note that the limits introduced at that time also reflected a blanket increase of €5,000 introduced prior to the new system coming into operation, in order to broaden the base from which social housing tenants are drawn, both promoting sustainable communities and also providing a degree of future-proofing.

The accepted benchmark of housing affordability is that households, particularly low- to moderate-income households, should not be paying more than one third or 35% of their disposable income on accommodation costs and the income thresholds for access to social housing support generally achieve this. Recognising that there are people who do not qualify for social housing but find it very challenging to purchase or rent at market rates, the Government has brought in new measures specifically targeted at delivering affordable homes.

Affordable housing is generally targeted at households earning a maximum gross income of €50,000 (single applicant) or €75,000 (joint applicant). Affordable homes to buy will be delivered under a new statutory Scheme; the relevant provisions of Part 5 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 have been commenced and regulations & guidance are being finalised.

This new Scheme replaces all previous affordable purchase schemes; is led by housing authorities; is a shared equity scheme with a fully repayable equity share/discount; eligibility and priority are set out in the legislation and will be expanded upon in the regulations; and the equity repayments will be pooled into a strategic affordable housing fund managed by the HFA.

The Scheme is complementary to other Government schemes which help first-time buyers to buy a home, such as the Help to Buy Scheme and the new Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan. The Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan was introduced from 1 February 2018, following a review of the two existing local authority home loan schemes, the House Purchase Loan and the Home Choice Loan. The new loan enables credit worthy first time buyers to access sustainable mortgage lending to purchase new or second-hand properties in a suitable price range. The low rate of fixed interest associated with the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan provides first time buyers with access to mortgage finance that they may not otherwise be able to afford at a higher interest rate.

Single applicants for the loan may earn up to €50,000 gross per annum, while the combined income of joint applicants may be up to €75,000 per annum. These income limits are unchanged from the previous local authority loan offerings. The maximum dual-income threshold also applies to the new Affordable Purchase Scheme which will enable a maximum purchase price of c. €320,000, which is in line with the purchase limits set out under the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan.

It is important to note that there are no set minimum income limits for the scheme; however, applicants must be capable of repaying the mortgage in accordance with the statutory credit policy underpinning the loan.

Full details of the loan’s eligibility criteria and other information are available from the dedicated Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan website:

. Subject to certain conditions, any person who meets the eligibility criteria may apply for a loan regardless of whether or not they are on the local authority housing list or qualified for social housing support.

There is also a gap between social housing and the rental market that needs to be filled, in order to support housing affordability, national competitiveness and the attractiveness of our main urban centres as places to live as well as work. Cost rental is an important component of progressive housing systems around Europe and after detailed financial modelling by my Department, the National Development Finance Agency and the European Investment Bank/Housing Finance Agency, Dublin City Council is working on the first major cost rental project to deliver over 300 cost rental homes at Emmet Road, Inchicore, as part of a mixed-tenure development of some 470 homes in total.

In parallel, the Housing Agency, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council and a number of Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) have been working on a smaller-scale cost rental pilot, at Enniskerry Road, the tenders for which have been issued. Learning from these pilot projects, cost rental will now be rolled out across other suitable sites.

As part of the broader social housing reform agenda, a review of income eligibility for social housing supports is underway. The Housing Agency is carrying out the detailed statistical work which will underpin this review on behalf of my Department. The review will obviously have regard to current initiatives being brought forward in terms of affordability and cost rental and will be completed when the impacts of these parallel initiatives have been considered.