Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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632. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government further to Parliamentary Question No. 243 of 21 November 2018, and further to his statement that he has no plans to extend the capital advance and leasing facility, CALF, loans to approved housing bodies, AHBs, for the purposes of developing cost rental accommodation, if there has been discussions of such a change to CALF within his Department, between his Department and other Departments and or between his office and that of other Ministers in the context of the ongoing review of Rebuilding Ireland, the budget 2019 preparations and or the ongoing confidence and supply talks with Fianna Fáil. [49475/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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The position remains unchanged from my reply to Parliamentary Question No. 243 of 21 November 2018. The Capital Advance Leasing Facility (CALF) is a facility, which is exclusively available to Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs), to assist them in accessing private or Housing Finance Agency (HFA) finance for the purchase, construction or refurbishment of homes that will be made available for social housing purposes under long-term availability agreements of up to 30 years. Accordingly, I have no plans to amend the uses for which CALF is made available to AHBs.

This Government’s ambition is to make cost/affordable rental a major part of the Irish housing system, with rents set at levels to cover construction costs and the management and administration of developments, but with only a minimal retained profit margin. As previously advised, this will be informed by pilot projects being delivered on sites at Emmet Road, Inchicore, and at Enniskerry Road, Dundrum.

My Department, the Housing Agency, the relevant local authorities and other key stakeholders engage in ongoing dialogue to explore how best to underpin and advance the wider roll out of cost rental in Ireland.  This inevitably involved consideration, including in the context of Budget 2019, of the potential role of all delivery partners, including AHBs, and funding schemes (such as CALF). Ultimately the key funding vehicle put in place under Budget 2019 was the €310 m Serviced Sites Fund, under which the first round of successful applications will be decided shortly.