Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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55. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the status of the Galway social housing task force; the number of times the task force has met to date; the reports completed to date by same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28457/20]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Galway Social Housing Taskforce is continuing its work in line with its terms of reference, with four meetings to date in 2020, following on from the four held in 2019. The Taskforce remains strongly committed to working to improve and accelerate social housing delivery in both the Galway local authority areas.

The Galway Councils have a combined target of just over 2,000 social housing homes to be delivered through build, acquisitions and leasing in the period 2018 to 2021.

The construction of new social homes has ramped up significantly, with 278 homes being delivered in 2019, a substantial increase on the 100 delivered in 2018. An overview of construction activity in each local authority is detailed in the Social Housing Construction Status Report, which provides scheme level detail on new build activity in all local authorities including Galway City and County. The most recent publication covers the period up to the end of Q4 2019 and is available on the Rebuilding Ireland website at the following link: . The Q1/Q2 2020 report will be published soon.

The Chair of the Taskforce provided an update on its work earlier this year and confirmed that both local authorities were intensively involved in the Taskforce’s work and that it is providing them with an important opportunity for direct, roundtable dialogue with my Department, the Housing Agency and the Approved Housing Body sector, so that each Galway authority can be supported in building the momentum essential for expanded delivery. Taking RAS and HAP into account, they delivered over 1,400 solutions for families and individuals on the social housing waits lists in the City and County in 2019, up from almost 1,100 in 2018.

I expect a further report from the Taskforce Chair at the end of this year and I understand also that the Chief Executives of both authorities report to their Councils on the work of the Taskforce following each meeting.