Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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33. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his plans to meet with either Cavan, Monaghan or Meath county councils to discuss social housing strategies; the housing targets for new builds in both counties for 2020 and 2021; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16593/20]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Programme for Government commits to address homelessness, increase the social housing stock by over 50,000 and to put affordability back at the heart of our housing system. I recently had a videoconference meeting with the Chief Executive’s all of the local authorities during which I highlighted these key priorities.

Since taking up office in late June, I established a High Level Homelessness Taskforce, to provide a forum for engagement with key organisations working to address homelessness. The Taskforce will input on the implementation of the commitments on homelessness in the Programme for Government.

In addition, I have convened a High Level Housing Delivery Group of key stakeholders, consisting of representatives of the County and City Manager’s Association, the Housing Delivery Co-ordination Office, the Housing Agency, the Irish Council of Social Housing and the Housing Alliance, to drive social housing delivery in 2020, taking account of the impact of Covid-19. All efforts are being made to make up any lost ground and to avail of delivery opportunities.

In this context, I recently launched a campaign in conjunction with the Housing Agency entitled ‘Call for Housing 2020’ which is a new national call for property owners and developers with vacant properties to make them available to other during this time, in order to optimise the opportunities to deliver new homes immediately.

As Minister, I intend to have continuous engagement on housing related matters with all local authorities, including Cavan, Monaghan and Meath, and I aim to visit as many Councils as possible over the coming months.

My Department's officials also meet regularly with local authority housing teams, both individually and collectively, to discuss progress in terms of social housing delivery. Recently such meetings have been held via videoconference; specifically with Monaghan County Council on 21st April and Cavan and Meath County Councils on 21st May. Further engagements will take place regularly over the rest of the year.