Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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219. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of applications made to the Rebuilding Ireland home loan scheme in 2018 and to date in 2019, by county and or local authority; the number of applications approved; the amount of funding provided to each local authority in 2018 and to date in 2019; if local authorities have made applications for further funding in respect of the scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45927/19]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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The Housing Agency provides a central support service which assesses applications for the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan on behalf of local authorities and makes recommendations to the authorities to approve or refuse applications. Housing Agency recommendations are then considered by the Credit Committee in each local authority, which issues loan approvals.

I have asked the Agency to compile figures on the numbers of applications that it has assessed and recommended to approve. In 2018, the Housing Agency assessed 3,036 valid applications. Of these, it recommended 1,550 for approval. In 2019, the Housing Agency have assessed 2,271 valid applications of which 1,133 have been recommended for approval.

Each local authority must have in place a credit committee and it is a matter for the committee to make the final decision on applications for loans, in accordance with the regulations, and having regard to the recommendations made by the Housing Agency.

When the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan scheme was initially being developed, it was estimated that the drawdown of loans would be approximately €200 million over three years. However, this loan product has proved to be more successful than initially anticipated. In the context of the scheme’s success my Department engaged with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Department of Finance with regard to the allocation for 2019.

I engaged early as I said I would. While discussions commenced in October 2018 on additional funding, the first tranche of €200m was only fully drawn down in August of this year. My Department wrote to all 31 local authorities on 15 August 2019 sanctioning an additional €363.6 million in funding for the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan. This brings total funding for the Loan to over €563.6 million for 2018 and 2019 combined.

The overall allocations incorporate loans already issued since the inception of the scheme, loans which will be drawn down on foot of approvals already issued and projected loan demand for the rest of 2019. There are no requests for additional funding in 2019.