Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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43. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of likely local authority housing starts that can possibly take place in the next six months by county but with particular reference to those counties immediately adjacent to Dublin which are already heavily overburdened with applicants; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39101/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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All local authorities are being funded to significantly increase their delivery of social housing as part of Rebuilding Ireland and a strong social housing construction pipeline is already in place for local authorities and approved housing bodies.

A detailed breakdown of the construction programme of new social housing build is set out in the Social Housing Construction Status Report which is published on a quarterly basis. These reports provide information on the construction programme underway for each local authority area, including the counties adjacent to Dublin.

The report covering the period up to end Quarter 2 2018 is available on the Rebuilding Ireland website at the following link:

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It provides project details of the social housing construction pipeline in place at that time for all local authorities, including those being delivered in partnership with approved housing bodies.

The report reflects an increase in the scale of the social housing build programme, with 1,067 schemes (or phases of schemes) in place, delivering 16,351 homes. Of this total, 3,518 units have already been delivered during 2016, 2017 and up to Q2 2018, while a further 4,602 are on site and under construction.

Almost 1,600 are at the final pre-construction stage and the remainder are progressing through the various stages of planning, design and procurement. It will be these schemes that will form the bulk of the housing starts and delivery over the course of the next 6 months and beyond, although further projects will continue to be added to the pipeline on an ongoing basis.

The timing, delivery and tenanting of schemes is a matter in the first place for each local authority. I am pleased to see the progress being made on projects building on what has been already delivered, but I am keen that all local authorities further accelerate their programmes and I have assured them that the necessary funding is available to support their work in this regard.