Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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608. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if the one-stage approval process for local authority social housing is now available for developments up to the value of €7 million; and the way in which this process works. [46573/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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A single-stage approval process continues to apply to local authority social housing construction projects with a budget up to €2m or up to 15 homes. This encompasses a significant proportion of the social housing construction programme of local authorities, representing approximately 40% of construction projects, 10% of the value and 11% of the units across capital funded schemes.

While the uptake to date by the local authorities has not been as strong as expected, my Department is working with the local government sector to encourage and increase the submission of suitable projects through this process, albeit that the time saving arising through using the singe stage approval process is modest, as most of the time in advancing a new social housing construction project arises from activities (including design, the Part 8 planning process and procurement) that apply equally to projects under the single or four stage processes.

The issue of increasing the financial threshold for projects that can avail of the one stage approval process is currently being considered as part of the review of the Public Spending Code, which is being led by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.