Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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1190. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the funding sought by each local authority for the purpose of providing local authority houses by county; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45477/19]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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1197. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the extent to which funding under the Rebuilding Ireland programme in respect of 2019 has been made available to or drawn down by Kildare County Council; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45484/19]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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1198. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the extent to which his Department has directly funded the house building programme of Kildare County Council; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45485/19]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1190, 1197 and 1198 together.

The implementation of Rebuilding Ireland is a key Government priority supported by significant annual investment. For 2019 alone, funding of €2.4 billion is being provided for all housing programmes with a further €2.63 billion available in 2020.

This investment will see the housing needs of almost 27,400 households being met in 2019, of which 10,000 will be new social housing homes delivered through build, acquisition and long term leasing programmes. In 2020, we are targeting delivery of over 11,000 homes though build, acquisition and leasing.

Below are details of both the capital and current funding my Department has provided to each local authority, including Kildare County Council, for the delivery of housing services under Rebuilding Ireland.

The scale of the funding available has allowed us to approved a significant social housing build programme nationally, a detailed breakdown of which is contained in the Social Housing Construction Status Report which is updated and published on a quarterly basis. The report covering the period up to end Quarter 2 of 2019 is available on the Rebuilding Ireland website at .

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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1191. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the conditions applicable in respect of funding sought by local authorities for the purpose of providing directly built local authority houses in their functional areas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45478/19]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Like all publicly-funded construction projects, the construction of new social housing must comply with the Government’s Capital Works Management Framework (CWMF), the objectives of which are to ensure cost certainty, value for money and financial accountability.

There are nine stages of review in the CWMF, which my Department has streamlined to just four, for social housing construction projects. The working arrangement for this four-stage process means that local authorities forward design proposals and costings to my Department sequentially, as they advance the projects through their own planning work. As projects are being reviewed under one stage, work can continue on other stages of that project, as well as on other new build projects. To illustrate the non-onerous nature of this process, a summary of the four stages is as follows:

Stage 1– Forward Capital Appraisal to verify the business case and basic project suitability – this is a light presentation of information; detailed designs and costs are notneeded at this initial stage.

Stage 2– Forward Pre-planning outline design and cost check – this involves the designs that are required for the Part 8 planning process and the outline costs; detailed designs and resulting costs are notneeded at this stage until planning permission is obtained.

Stage 3– Pre-tender design and costs check – this stage arises after the more detailed designs and cost estimates have been prepared by the local authority design team. If costs are consistent with the earlier stages, then this review will be swift.

Stage 4– Tender approval from Department – he tenders have been received and assessed by the local authority and again, if costs are consistent with the earlier stages, this review will be swift.

These stages are the minimum number to allow my Department’s Secretary General - as Accounting Officer - to make the annual declaration regarding the proper management of public funds in terms of the CWMF. It also is what is required to meet the requirements of the C&AG on public funding oversight.

My Department also operates a single-stage approval process for smaller scale projects and a three-stage process for rapid build/modular build projects, where the contractor is delivering on a design/build basis. These arrangements demonstrate the Government's commitment to the accelerated delivery of new social housing.

My Department has no interest in unnecessarily prolonging the time involved in these approvals, other than to ensure compliance with Government-wide rules for capital project oversight. We will continue to work with local authorities to ensure that projects are progressed efficiently, while also delivering high quality design and good value for money for newly built social housing.