Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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168. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will provide an update on the delivery of affordable homes in the Poolbeg SDZ, St. Michael's Estate, O‘Devaney Gardens and Oscar Traynor Road. [3594/23]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Under Housing for All, the Government will deliver 54,000 affordable homes between now and 2030, to be facilitated by local authorities, Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs), the Land Development Agency (LDA) and through a strategic partnership between the State and retail banks.

2022 represented the first year of a very ambitious programme of affordable housing delivery. Significant funding has been secured and is being made available to support delivery of affordable housing for purchase or for cost rental by local authorities, including those in Dublin City.

Funding under the various streams is made available on a programme basis in support of approved affordable housing schemes, rather than by allocations to counties. Housing for All has the largest ever housing budget in the history of the State to transform our housing system, with in excess of €20 billion in funding through the Exchequer, the LDA and the Housing Finance Agency over the five years.

Local authorities have published 5 year Housing Delivery Action Plans setting out affordable housing delivery targets up to 2026. Dublin City Council has a target of 2,114 affordable homes over this period, not including additional affordable homes that will be delivered through AHBs and the higher Part V requirements introduced through the Affordable Housing Act 2021. Dublin City Council's delivery plan can be accessed on its website.

Local authorities have begun collating information on the delivery of affordable homes in their area in the same manner as is currently undertaken for social housing. It is intended that information on delivery across all delivery streams will be coordinated by my Department and I expect that my Department will be in a position to commence reporting on affordable delivery figures in national quarterly delivery statistics this quarter.

I have approved €62.4m AHF funding to assist with the delivery of almost 250 affordable purchase homes at O'Devaney Gardens, and over 370 cost rental homes at St Michael's Estate, Emmet Road.

The Emmet Road development will be a mix of studio, 1, 2 and 3 bedroomed cost rental apartments. A planning application was lodged to An Bord Pleanála in October 2022 and a decision is due in April 2023. Dublin City Council estimate that construction on Emmet Road will commence late 2024 and the affordable homes will be delivered in phases from early 2025 onwards.

Phase 1A of the scheme at O'Devaney Gardens is now complete with handover of the first 56 public homes. Construction of the affordable units is estimated to commence later this year with full delivery expected within 30 months of the commencement date.

Dublin City Council submitted the final funding application documents to my Department for Oscar Traynor Road last month. The application is currently under assessment and a decision on funding approval will be issued to Dublin City Council shortly. Dublin City Council has advised that the delivery of these units would commence in early 2025.

The regeneration of Poolbeg West is an important step in the transformation of the Dublin Docklands area, with the potential to provide for 3,500 homes. A condition of the planning scheme, as modified by An Bord Pleanála on 9 April 2019 is the provision of 15% social and affordable homes on this site in addition to the 10% statutory social housing requirement under Part V arrangements. My Department remains committed to working with Dublin City Council, and the developers of the Poolbeg SDZ area to progress this site, subject to agreement on this and all the normal and relevant terms, including value for money aspects. Engagement and work is ongoing in this respect.