Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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226. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the expenditure on LIHAF in 2018 and from 1 January to date in September 2019; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37775/19]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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As a key initiative of the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, the Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (LIHAF) is designed to fund the provision of public off-site infrastructure to relieve critical blockages and enable housing developments to be built on key sites at scale.

Funding of €200 million was originally made available under LIHAF, of which €150 million would be funded by the Exchequer with local authorities to match fund €50 million. 30 projects received final approval, at a total cost of €195.71 million, of which €146.69 million will be funded by the Exchequer with local authorities funding the balance. Details on all of the LIHAF projects by local authority area, budget allocation, project description, and housing delivery have been published on the Rebuilding Ireland website and are available at the following link:

www.rebuildingireland.ie/LIHAF

In terms of LIHAF expenditure, most projects have been at the design and planning stages, and this is reflected in the level of expenditure to date. However, more projects are now progressing to construction stage and it is expected that the expenditure will increase significantly towards the end of 2019 and into 2020.

Drawdown of LIHAF grant funding from the Department commenced with €1.603m in Exchequer funding provided in 2017, a further €6.814m in 2018 and €12.10m to date in 2019.  Each of these Exchequer amounts was matched by 25% local authority funding. In line with the LIHAF administrative cycle, local authorities will submit claims of expenditure for Q3 expenditure over the coming weeks.