Written answers

Tuesday, 5 November 2019

Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government

Social and Affordable Housing Provision

Photo of Thomas ByrneThomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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1159. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his plans to provide more social housing in County Meath. [45189/19]

Photo of Eoghan MurphyEoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Housing is a key Government priority, as can be seen with almost €2.4 billion being provided in 2019 for all housing programmes - this is a 25% increase on the 2018 allocation. The level of progress being made is reflected in social housing waiting lists, which have reduced by 26% nationally, from 91,600 households to just over 68,000 between 2016 and 2019.

In 2018, Meath County Council delivered 437 social housing homes through build, acquisition and leasing programmes, with an additional 767 households being supported through HAP and RAS, resulting in the needs of over 1,200 households being met across all delivery schemes in 2018. In 2019, as of the end of Quarter 2, this figure stands at 465 across all delivery streams. Since 2016 to the end of Quarter 2 of 2019, more than 3,400 households in County Meath have had their housing needs met.

In relation to social housing construction activity, my Department publishes comprehensive status reports on a quarterly basis of all social housing construction schemes for all local authority areas. The most recent of these reports covers the period up to the end of Quarter 2 of 2019 and contains information on the progress of over 22,139 new social housing homes, which are currently approved and progressing through planning, design and construction, as well as homes delivered to the end of Quarter 2 of 2019. This report is available at .

The report shows that Meath County Council - and the Approved Housing Bodies they are working with - have a social housing construction programme of 82 projects already complete or at planning, design, tender or construction stage, which will deliver 1,056 homes when complete. This programme continues to be added to on an ongoing basis. I have assured all local authorities, including Meath County Council, that funding is available to support their activity in delivering on their social housing targets.

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