Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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239. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the impact of a sizeable capital expenditure on the building of local authority houses as required nationally including affordable houses for sale to eligible families as opposed to the various modes of assistance available through rent support, HAP or other interim measures which have an annual impact as opposed to a once off capital investment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18040/19]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Over the course of the 6-year Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan, the Government is committed to meeting the housing needs of over 138,000 households. This will be achieved through blended delivery, involving increasing the social housing stock by 50,000 homes, through build, acquisition and leasing programmes, and supporting some 88,000 further households through the Housing Assistance Payment and the Rental Accommodation Scheme.

Over the period 2016-2018, the housing needs of some 90,000 households were supported under current programmes, including the HAP and RAS schemes. This figure includes continuing to provide support to those already in homes supported under the programmes concerned, and also the additional tenancies established during that period. If the funding provided for these 90,000 households had been transferred to capital expenditure, to support building or buying homes, it would have secured some 5,500 homes, leaving no resources available to support the other 85,500 households. Looking at it another way, it would take almost €20 billion to provide a new build local authority home for those 90,000 households. 

Rebuilding lreland is working, with annual delivery targets exceeded in 2017 and again in 2018. By end 2018, over 72,000 additional social housing supports had already been provided under the Plan. I am confident that the actions, targets and resources available under Rebuilding Ireland provide a strong platform for delivering homes for those on social housing waiting lists.