Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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173. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government for an update on the delays being caused to social housing developments funded via SHIP, CALF and CAS arising from delays in his Department approving revised cost estimated caused by construction sector inflation. [23335/23]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Housing for All is the Government’s plan to increase the supply of housing to an average of 33,000 per year over the next decade. This includes the delivery of 90,000 social homes and 54,000 affordable homes by 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 and €5bn funding through the Housing Finance Agency.

Achieving value for money is an important consideration and my Department has to assess each application on this basis. It must be clearly evident that the costs sought are a true and fair reflection and can be supported by evidence. The reasons for a project stalling are broader than seeking approval for increased funding.

Local authorities have options that allow them to deviate from using the 4-stage pre-Capital Works Management Framework construction programme to achieve funding approval for social housing projects based on size and the chosen procurement strategy. For projects that are estimated to be below €6M in cost and involve projects consisting of less than 26 homes, local authorities can avail of the Single Stage approval process which takes approximately four weeks to be assessed by my Department. Local authorities availing of the Single Stage approval process can re-submit for increased funding approval in cases where tender inflation and other unforeseen issues cause the initial costs to rise post-tender.

Under CALF, the original approval is still valid while the reassessments are being carried out and payments can still be made under the conditions of the original approval letter which would be standard procedure. The expected turnaround time for CALF applications is approximately 6 weeks, from receipt of application by the local authority to a decision by my Department.

The construction sector has been impacted by construction product inflation, constrained supply chains and high energy costs. This resulted in delays to a number of housing projects. However, there has been a strong improvement in the delivery environment, supported by measures introduced by this Government to address material inflation and energy costs, through the introduction of the Inflation/ Supply Chain Delay Co-operation Framework.