Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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321. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will report on the Housing for All for a new croí cónaithe fund to increase owner-occupier apartment development in city centres. [17552/22]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The national housing policy Housing for All, as launched in September 2021, provides a new pathway to a sustainable housing system, by clearly setting out how we plan to address the short, medium and long-term challenges ahead. The overall aim of this new housing plan for Ireland is that everyone in the State should have access to a home to purchase or rent at an affordable price, built to a high standard and in the right place, offering a high quality of life.

Aligned with the overall objective for compact growth, vibrant, liveable cities must offer options for both owner occupiers and renters in cities, at all income levels. A key focus of Housing for Allis to ensure that those who wish to purchase a home, have sufficient location choice. This is particularly the case for the core of our cities, towns and villages.

The new Croí Cónaithefund as outlined in Housing for All, is intended to ensure that aligned with the objectives of the National Planning Framework, additional choices are made available to home buyers in our urban cores, and town centres.It will do this by expanding home ownership options, where the choice is currently limited:

- In urban areas, for apartment living over a certain height/density threshold

- In towns, where options for building new private dwellings has been constrained by the lack of serviced sites.

It is clear that in higher density locations, there is insufficient apartments being built for sale. To overcome this viability challenge, and given the high level of unactivated permissions particularly for apartments in our urban areas, a Croí Cónaithe (Cities) fund is being established, which will ensure that these developments can be built more viably for sale to owner occupiers. This measure is based on activating the planning permissions already in place for such homes over the coming five years.

It will be managed by the Housing Agency on behalf of the Department, and will be operated on an open book accounting basis, to ensure that financial support provided feeds through in reduced costs to the home-buyers.It is also envisaged that measures in Housing for Allto support greater construction productivity and reducing the cost of land through changes to planning legislation, will also encourage a more sustainable market for such housing thereafter.

My Department is currently working with the Housing Agency on finalizing the operational basis for the new fund and expect to engage prospective proposers in a call for proposals in Q2 2022.

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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322. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will report on the Housing for All plan for increased funding capacity for the Land Development Agency for strategic development of public lands for affordable and social housing in city and town centres. [17553/22]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Housing for All provides a new housing plan for Ireland to 2030 with the overall objective that every citizen in the State should have access to good quality homes through a steady supply of housing in the right locations, with economic, social and environmental sustainability built into the system. The LandDevelopment Agency (LDA) are at the heart of this plan, advancing their remit to develop land, including public lands, for housing or other purposes.

The enactment of the Land Development Agency Act, 2021, providing for the establishment of the LDA as a commercial State Agency, marked an historic move to use State lands to provide for housing supply and affordability needs.

The Act provided for the establishment of a new LDA Designated Activity Company (DAC) and the initial capitalisation of the LDA DAC by the National Treasury Management Agency from the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund.

Housing for All recognised that additional resourcing, likely to be in the form of borrowing will be required to meet the increased level of activities envisaged under the plan. Approximately €1 billion will be required to assist in funding the pipeline of housing, including on additional State lands, and accelerated housing through Project Tosaigh.

This additional funding will bring the total capital available to €3.5bn, positioning the LDA as a very significant State-owned participant in this sector.