Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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99. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the list, per local authority, of additional personnel/housing officers requested of his Department over the past two years; the number of these requests that were sanctioned; if he will clarify where new personnel are in place in each local authority; if he will provide a breakdown of the grade and job titles in each case; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11916/23]

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The Housing for All strategy is the Government’s plan to increase the supply of housing to an average of 33,000 per year over the next decade. The annual targets include the delivery of 88,400 new social homes and 53,800 new affordable homes in the period 2022-2030. Housing for All is supported by an investment package of over €4bn per annum, through an overall combination of €12bn in direct Exchequer funding, €3.5bn in funding through the Land Development Agency (LDA) and €5bn funding through the Housing Finance Agency.

Housing for All includes a commitment to strengthen the capacity of local authorities to initiate, design, plan, develop and manage housing projects. Significant work has been undertaken to identify the additional staff resources required by local authorities to deliver the social housing targets set out in Housing for All.

During 2021, the Housing Delivery Coordination Office (HDCO) engaged with each local authority to identify their additional staff requirements to deliver social housing. Following this engagement, my Department approved funding for over 250 (250.25) housing posts in local authorities nationally to address social housing delivery. Funding has been approved for a five-year period from 2022 to 2026 with a potential to extend the funding to 2030, subject to the availability of the capital funding as well as the delivery of targets in each local authority area.

In December 2021, 162 technical and 88.25 administrative posts were approved. I believe there have been delays in some areas but recruitment is well underway and that over 180 posts have been filled to date.

Furthermore, an initial tranche of 69 affordable housing staff posts were approved in October 2022 and communicated to each of the respective local authorities with an affordability constraint. This is a key requirement to underpin affordable housing delivery and ensuring the required structures are in place to enable affordable housing delivery as a matter of priority. The Department and the HDCO will be monitoring this programme further to a review of any additional supports being examined in 2023. Recruitment for these posts is currently underway.

I propose to circulate with the Official Report a tabular statement setting out the information requested.

(1)Social Housing Delivery – Additional posts by Local Authority area

The table below sets out details of the number of new posts approved by the Department for social housing delivery and the number of posts filled by each LA at end Q3 2022:

(1)Affordable Housing Delivery – Additional posts by Local Authority area

The table below sets out the number of new posts approved by the Department for affordable housing delivery: