Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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174. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of social houses built in 2020 and to date in 2021; and the cost of the social housing by unit. [49324/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Details on social housing delivery for each local authority, across a range of delivery mechanisms, are included in social housing statistics published by my Department. This data is available to the end of Quarter 2 2021 and is available on the statistics page of my Department’s website, at the following link:

Cost information on the delivery of social homes through the various construction streams, is collated by my Department at development level rather than at individual housing unit level. Disaggregating such development level information into individual unit costs, across all of the various types of units, would require significant analysis on unit characteristics such as size, type, number of bedrooms, site costs, abnormal costs, fees, etc. to derive an accurate reflection of unit cost.

In October 2020, the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service (IGEES) in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, published an ‘Analysis of Social Housing Build Programme’ which examined the social housing build programme over the years 2016 to 2019 and considered issues such as Use of Build Delivery; Type of Units, Cost & Speed of Delivery and Cost Efficiency and Market Interaction. The IGEES analysis noted the range of average costs which highlighted the diversity of costs for delivery of new build units across different developments and locations. The paper is available at the following link:

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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175. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the amount spent on emergency accommodation in each of the years 2015 to 2020; and the criteria for qualification as emergency accommodation for the purposes of this spending. [49325/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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My Department’s role in relation to homelessness involves the provision of a national framework of policy, legislation and funding to underpin the role of housing authorities in addressing homelessness at local level. Statutory responsibility in relation to the provision of accommodation and associated services for homeless persons rests with individual housing authorities. The purposes for which housing authorities may incur expenditure in addressing homelessness are prescribed in Section 10 of the Housing Act 1988.

While responsibility for the provision of homeless accommodation services rests with individual housing authorities, the administration of homeless services is organised on a regional basis. A homelessness consultative forum has been established in each region in accordance with Chapter 6 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2009. Decisions on the range of emergency accommodation and funding required in each region are a matter for individual housing authorities in consultation with the Management Group of the relevant regional joint Homelessness Consultative Forum.

My Department does not fund homeless services directly but provides funding to housing authorities towards these costs. Under these arrangements, housing authorities must provide at least 10% of the cost of services from their own resources. Housing authorities may also incur additional expenditure on homeless related services outside of these funding arrangements with my Department. Therefore, the exact spend by housing authorities on homeless services is a matter for individual housing authorities.

Exchequer funding is provided by my Department on a regional basis. The table below sets out the funding recouped from 2015 to 2020, including funding recouped towards expenditure incurred in implementing exceptional Covid-19 measures in 2020.

www.gov.ie/en/collection/80ea8-homelessness-data/#local-authority-regional-financial-reports