Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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202. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of direct-build local authority houses started or completed in each of the past three years to date; the extent to which he expects to increase this number in the future; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24551/24]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Government and my Department continue to support local authorities in the delivery of new public housing, with strong recent delivery and ambitious national and local targets set for local authorities to deliver further social and affordable housing. To support this delivery, Budget 2024 provided for continued record investment in Housing with €4.25 billion in Exchequer funding for the delivery of housing programmes, comprising capital funding of €2.6 billion and current funding of €1.5 billion. The Capital provision will be supplemented by LDA investment and HFA lending resulting in an overall capital provision of over €5 billion in 2024.

This is on the back of delivery in 2023 which saw over 8,100 new social homes through the build programmes of our local authorities and those of the approved housing bodies. That 2023 output represented the highest annual output of social homes in decades. With the funding available in 2024, I expect the number of new social homes delivered via construction this year to increase again. In terms of local authority own build programme, since 2021, over 7,700 social homes have been delivered by local authorities.

To further assist local authorities in the acceleration of their own social housing build programme, the unprecedented budget package for 2024 for my Department is key as are other innovations such as the additional staff sanctioned for local authority housing teams and support for these teams through use of the Design Manual and Modern Methods of Construction which are facilitated. We have also seen the establishment of the €125m Housing for All Land Acquisition Fund in November 2022. This is managed by the Housing Agency to support the acquisition of additional sites for further public housing delivery. New local authority direct build housing projects have already commenced design and planning work on sites newly acquired through that fund.

In these ways, Housing for All is providing the necessary funding and supports for local authorities and other delivery partners, to address the housing challenges we face and to deliver a strong and sustainable housing system for the longer term.