Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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305. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the changes that he recently made to the cost rental equity loan. [48494/22]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Government's Housing for All strategy commits to delivering a total of 18,000 Cost Rental homes over the period to 2030. Significant funding has been secured and is being made available to support delivery of Cost Rental by Approved Housing Bodies (s), Local Authorities and by the Land Development Agency (LDA).

Delivery will increase incrementally, to an average of 2,000 Cost Rental homes per year. 10,000 Cost Rental homes will be delivered from 2021 to 2026. s will be supported by Cost Rental Equity Loan (CREL) funding and Local Authorities will be able to avail of funding for Cost Rental delivery through the Affordable Housing Fund (AHF). The LDA will also deliver Cost Rental on its own portfolio of sites, or through acquisitions under Project Tosaigh.

International factors have seen an increase in the cost of loan co-financing due to the trajectory of interest rates which impacts delivery of cost rental homes as well as impacting other housing providers. Combined with the ongoing impact of construction cost inflation, the viability of schemes has become more challenging, directly affecting the ultimate cost rent paid by tenants.

With this in mind, Government has decided that it is appropriate to increase the funding ceilings available per dwelling delivered for both the CREL and AHF schemes and my Department is working on operationalising these increases. These increases will be subject to defined criteria and the operational parameters for how these changes will be implemented are currently being finalised and will be completed within the coming weeks.

These changes will help to address some of the challenges faced by s and Local Authorities in the continued implementation of these Cost Rental schemes, and will help to continue to target rents achievable for Exchequer-supported Cost Rental homes at a minimum discount of 25% below open market rates.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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306. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will provide an update on the interim short-term letting regulations, the legislation for which was passed in July 2022. [48495/22]