Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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303. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the progress of a proposed development of 42 public housing units at a location (details supplied) being developed by a cooperative and funded by his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33020/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) are making an important contribution to social housing delivery, as envisaged under current Government policy.  My Department operates a number of funding programmes that assist local authorities to work in partnership with AHBs to construct, purchase and lease new homes and make them available for social housing. One such programme, that AHBs progress construction projects through, is the Capital Advance Loan Facility (CALF).

CALF funding is capital support provided to AHBs by local authorities to facilitate the funding of construction, acquisition or refurbishment of new social housing units.  This loan facility can support up to 30% of the eligible capital cost of the housing project, with the housing units provided to local authorities for social housing use under long-term lease arrangements known as Payment and Availability Agreements. A nominal interest rate of 2% fixed per annum is charged by the local authority on the initial capital amount. Repayments on either the capital or interest are not required during the term of the loan (between 10 and 30 years), although where an AHB chooses to, repayments can be made during the term. At the end of the term, the outstanding capital amount plus the interest accrued, is owed and repayable to the local authority. The local authority issues the CALF monies to the AHB and the local authority, in turn, recoups same from my Department. 

My Department has provided funding through the CALF Scheme for 34 high-quality homes for social housing use at the location referred to. The project is being progressed by the AHB, Cooperative Housing Ireland, working in partnership with Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown County Council. I can confirm that my Department issued a CALF approval for this construction project in January 2019. The latest update on the project from Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown County Council is that the homes have an indicative site start date of Q2 2021 and an estimated completion date of Q3 2022. As with all construction projects in the current COVID 19 climate, delivery programmes and timelines are under constant review.

My Department publishes a quarterly Social Housing Construction Projects Status Report, which sets out the continuing progress being made in advancing the national local authority and AHB new-build pipeline.  The latest report, setting out the position at end Q1 2021, can be accessed at the following weblink: