Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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79. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if the annual growth of local authority housing lists has been accurately established with a view to ensuring the provision of an adequate number of local authority direct build houses on an annual basis thereby ensuring waiting lists do not expand further; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1422/19]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Details on the number of households qualified for social housing support in each local authority area are provided in the statutory Summary of Social Housing Assessments (SSHA), which has been carried out on an annual basis since 2016.

The 2018 assessment shows that 71,858 households were assessed as qualified and being in need of social housing support. This represents a decrease of 13,941 households or 16.2% on the last assessment in June 2017. Indeed, since the Government's Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan was launched in 2016, the numbers have decreased from 91,600 to 71,858, a reduction of 22%.

It should be noted that the SSHA is a point in time exercise and does not necessarily reflect the dynamic nature of entry to and exit from the list. It is also important to note that social housing is a demand led service and for that reason it is difficult to predict the degree to which housing lists will decrease or increase over the next 12 months. The number of homes delivered by local authorities in a given time period does not necessarily equate to the ‘net need’ for social housing support reducing by an equivalent number. The nature of the list is dynamic in that, as households are added to it, the needs of others are met and further households will leave the list for various reasons including the households themselves indicating that they no longer require State support.

Over the course of the 6-year Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan, the Government is committed to meeting the housing needs of over 137,000 households through the provision of social housing supports. The implementation of Rebuilding Ireland is well underway and significant progress has been made. Annual delivery targets were exceeded in 2016 and again in 2017. By end September 2018, over 63,700 of the 137,000 additional social housing solutions envisaged under the plan had already been provided.

The latest data in relation to social housing delivery to end Q3 2018 is published on my Department's website at the following link:

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Data in relation to Q4 2018 outputs is currently being compiled and will be published shortly.