Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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389. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the level of funding awarded under the LIHAF scheme to each local authority nationwide; the progress to date in respect of the spending of such funds by county; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38697/20]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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390. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the expenditure to date of the funding awarded to Kildare County Council under LIHAF; the extent to which all the funding has been spent or are in hand thereof; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38698/20]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 389 and 390 together.

The Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (LIHAF) was designed to support housing supply by relieving critical infrastructure blockages. 30 projects were approved with an overall budget of €195.7m, €146.8m Exchequer funded and the remainder funded by local authorities. Full details of the approvals are available online at www.rebuildingireland.ie/LIHAF.

Of the 30 projects, 2 projects will not proceed. Kildare County Council has confirmed that the Naas Inner Relief Road will not progress and Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council has confirmed that the Clay Farm project will now not proceed.

Currently, 5 LIHAF projects have completed infrastructure construction. Up to the end of October 2020, 12 projects are at infrastructure construction stage or have been approved to move to same. Of the remaining 11 projects, one is expected to have a tender approved in Q4 2020 and go to construction in Q1 2021.

10 are not yet ready to go to infrastructure tender stage, a precursor to receive approval to proceed to construction. Of these ten, five are advancing through the detailed design and planning stage and the remaining five projects are currently under review. My Department while reviewing these projects will consider requests from local authorities for extensions to the funding agreements as and when they arise.

In terms of LIHAF funding drawdown, thus far, most infrastructure projects have been at the design, planning and procurement stages, and the bulk of expenditure will arise during the construction phase. This is reflected in the level of expenditure to end October 2020, with approximately €52.279 million in Exchequer funds drawn down (matched by a further 25% local authority funding bringing the total expenditure to €69.705m). The table below details the exchequer funding drawn down up to end of October 2020.