Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

107. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the total amount of funding awarded to Kildare County Council under LIHAF; the extent to which funds have been spent; if further funding is likely to be provided; the level of development in the various towns in north County Kildare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35682/20]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

As an initiative of the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, the Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (LIHAF) was primarily designed to support housing supply by funding the provision of public off-site infrastructure to relieve critical infrastructure blockages and enable housing developments to be built on key sites at scale.

30 projects received final LIHAF approval with an overall budget of €195.7m, of which €146.8m will be Exchequer funded, with the remainder funded via local authorities. All funding under LIHAF is now fully committed and there are no proposals to make further allocations at this time.

Details of the approvals by local authority area, budget allocation, project description and projected housing delivery are available at www.rebuildingireland.ie/LIHAF.

Kildare County Council received approval for 3 projects under LIHAF, details of which are se out in the table below.

Regarding the spend and the progress achieved by Kildare County Council in progressing these projects, as at the end of October 2020 Kildare County Council has drawn down €654,584 for the Sallins project which was now completed in 2019, €470,190 for Naas and €1,555,394 for Maynooth.

Kildare County Council has confirmed to the Department that a Part 8 planning application for the Naas Inner Relief Road LIHAF project was rejected by the Council in mid-2019 and has confirmed that this LIHAF project will now not proceed, although an element of the housing that was associated with the project has taken place.

In respect of the Maynooth Eastern Relief Road LIHAF project, Kildare County Council has confirmed to the Department that the infrastructure works are currently at detailed design stage. It is the responsibility of Kildare County Council to progress the project and the Council has confirmed that it is working to advance this project and will revert to the Department with the necessary details as required.