Francis Noel Duffy (Dublin South West, Green Party)
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200. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government when the Croí Cónaithe towns and cities funding will be open for applications; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36821/22]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Housing for All (published in September 2021) 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 strategy sets out, over four pathways, a broad suite of measures to achieve its policy objectives together with a financial commitment of in excess of €4 billion per annum.

The suite of measures under the pathway to addressing vacancy and efficient use of existing stock includes the Croí Cónaithe (Towns) Fund which will be delivered by local authorities for the provision of serviced sites for housing to attract people to build their own homes and to support the refurbishment of vacant properties, enabling people to live in small towns and villages in a sustainable way.

Details in relation to the operation of the Croí Cónaithe (Towns) Fund are at an advanced stage of development, including the scope and appropriate timeframes, and it will be launched shortly.

The Croí Cónaithe (Cities) Scheme supports the building of apartments for sale to owner-occupiers. The Scheme aims to bridge the current “Viability Gap” between the cost of building apartments and the market sale price (where the cost of building is greater). The scheme is targeted principally at activating planning permissions already in place for such homes.

The scheme launched on the 10th May with an Expressions of Interest process and will be managed and administered by the Housing Agency on behalf of my Department. The closing date for receipt of proposals was 21st June 2022.

The Housing Agency has now started the first of the three pre-contract stages:

1. Reviewing eligible proposals,

2. Ranking of suitable proposals,

3. A detailed due diligence process leading to eligibility.

I expect that the full assessment of proposals received will take a number of months and expect agreements to deliver apartments to be put in place in the Autumn.

James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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201. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the details of acceptance and refusal rates for a scheme (details supplied) of each local authority; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36833/22]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Local Authority Home Loan has been available nationwide from local authorities since 4 January 2022.

The Housing Agency provides a central support service that assesses applications for the Local Authority Home Loan on behalf of local authorities and makes recommendations to the authorities to approve or refuse applications. Each local authority must have in place a credit committee and it is a matter for the committee to make the final decision on applications for loans, in accordance with the regulations, having regard to the recommendations made by the Housing Agency.

The most recent figures provided by the Agency on the numbers of applications that it has assessed for each local authority, from January up to the end of June 2022 are set out in the below table:

My Department does not collect information on figures for applications and refusals under the Fresh Start principle of the scheme.

Information on Local Authority drawdowns, approvals, average drawdowns, and average approvals is available at the following link:

www.gov.ie/en/collection/42d2f-local-authority-loan-activity/#local-authority-loans-approvedpaid.

As the Local Authority Home Loan is only for applications since 4 January 2022, data on drawdowns is not yet available for this loan type. This link will be updated when information on the Local Authority Home Loan becomes available.

My Department regularly publishes information on the number and value of (i) local authority loan approvals and (ii) local authority loan drawdowns. Local authority approval means that an official letter of offer has been sent to a borrower (and therefore relates to a specific property and loan amount).