Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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501. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of private houses that local authorities are renting and subletting as social housing by local authority; the annual cost of renting these houses in each of the years 2016 to 2018 and to date in 2019, by local authority; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40631/19]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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The Government has set out an ambitious set of targets for the delivery of social housing in the period to 2021 in its Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan. A commitment to deliver 50,000 new social housing homes through a range of delivery mechanisms is being supported by a multi-annual Exchequer commitment totaling €6.5 billion over the period of the plan. These targets will be achieved using a combination of building, purchasing and leasing high quality properties to meet the needs of households on local authority waiting lists around the country.

Of the 50,000 social housing homes to be delivered under Rebuilding Ireland, 10,000 are targeted to be leased by local authorities and approved housing bodies under leasing arrangements from a range of different sources.

The Social Housing Current Expenditure Programme (SHCEP) supports this delivery of social housing by providing financial support to local authorities for the leasing of houses and apartments. Dwellings under the scheme come from a number of different sources including private owners, Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs), Part V and the NAMA Special Purpose Vehicle (NARPS).

Long term lease arrangements, including the enhanced lease, of privately owned dwellings can be entered into by either local authorities or AHBs. Under these arrangements the local authority or AHB acts as the landlord to the tenant. Local authorities may also enter into availability arrangements with private owners whereby an owner makes their property available to tenants of the local authority for a defined period. Under this type of arrangement, the owner of the property acts as the landlord to the tenant and performs all the landlord obligations.

Details of the total number of privately owned homes made available to local authorities directly (i.e. not through an AHB) under long term lease or availability arrangements at the end of each of the years 2016 to 2018, and at end Q2 2019, are set out in Tables 1 and 2, together with the associated payments to local authorities. Payments made to local authorities in any given year may include claims relating to the previous year, which were previously unclaimed by the local authority.

Table 1: Total operational dwellings provided under lease or availability agreements between Private Owners and Local Authorities 2016 to End Q2 2019

Table 2: Total amount paid to local authorities in respect of dwellings made available under lease or availability agreements between Private Owners and Local Authorities 2016 to End Q2 2019