Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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765. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his plans in relation to affordable cost rental homes and council housing within Louth County Council; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41011/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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This Government is absolutely committed to ensuring that affordable, quality housing solutions are available to everyone in Irish society and this is reflected in the Programme for Government "Our Shared Future".  

This commitment was underpinned by the investment of €3.3bn towards housing programmes in Budget 2021. Subject to the impact of COVID-19, this investment will fund the delivery of 12,750 new social homes in 2021, including 9,500 new build homes. I will be publishing a new Housing Strategy, "Housing for All" in the coming weeks and I look forward to working with all stakeholders, in delivering on the commitment in the Programme for Government, to deliver 50,000 new social homes over the next five years. 

The status of social housing construction projects, including those being progressed by Louth County Council, is updated and published on a quarterly basis by my Department. The quarterly publication is a comprehensive status report of social housing construction schemes for all local authority areas, with details such as the project locations and a range of information relating to their advancement, whether completed or on site or progressing through planning, design and construction. The most recent publication covers the period up to the end of Q1 2021 and is available at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/publication/23911-social-housing-construction-projects-status-report-q1-2021/.

In relation to Cost Rental, a range of work is ongoing to deliver this new form of housing. My Department is utilising the expertise of Local Authorities, the Land Development Agency (LDA), and the Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) to deliver projects in a variety of ways, in order to prove the concept of this new sector. Cost Rental will be regulated by Part 3 of the Affordable Housing Act 2021 and I intend to publish the first Regulations governing the Cost Rental sector within the coming weeks, with the full framework for this new housing sector to be introduced in the coming months

The geographic provision of Cost Rental will be informed by National Planning Framework priorities. It will be focused, at least initially, in densely populated urban areas, where rental affordability pressures are particularly acute and where State resources can have the biggest impact. It is important that the State targets its affordability measures towards the parts of the country that are experiencing the most extreme affordability challenges. 

One of the main sources of State funding for Cost Rental homes is the new Cost Rental Equity Loan scheme, which was allocated €35m in funding in Budget 2021. It gives AHBs access to Government loans on favourable terms, to cover up to 30% of the cost of new Cost Rental homes. Following the detailed assessment of submitted proposals, approval was granted for the funding this year of 390 new Cost Rental homes, located in Dublin, Kildare, and Cork. Cost-covering rents for these homes will be at least 25% below comparable open market prices. Further details of these homes, including precise locations, will be published when the successful AHBs have completed necessary commercial arrangements. I am planning to expand this scheme through the review of the National Development Plan and the budgetary process, in order to give AHBs certainty of funding on a multi-annual basis and also to allow them to plan developments into the longer term.