Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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849. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of social and affordable homes that were stalled awaiting approval from his Department at the start of January 2025, across how many schemes and in which local authority areas. [11151/25]

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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850. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of the 3,000 social and affordable homes that received Cabinet approval in February that will be delivered in 2025, 2026 and 2027; and to provide a breakdown of the units to be delivered each year, by type and funding stream. [11152/25]

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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851. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if a supplementary estimate will be brought forward to revise the December 2024 estimate arising from the Cabinet memo allocating €450 million to the delivery of social and affordable housing; if so, when; and the amount allocated to each funding stream for 2025. [11153/25]

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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852. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government when funding approval will be provided for all outstanding social and affordable project applications to his Department; and to provide a subsequent costing for these and timeline for delivery. [11154/25]

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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853. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of social and affordable housing schemes granted approval by Cabinet in February 2025 that have been communicated to local authorities and approved housing bodies (AHB), providing a breakdown by AHB/local authority and the number of units in each scheme. [11155/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 849 to 853, inclusive, together.

Government is fully committed to working with all stakeholders to deliver social, affordable and cost rental homes at scale and to continue accelerating housing supply across all tenures. This is underpinned by the recent decision by Government to provide additional capital funding of €450 million in 2025 to support housing delivery.

The additional funding is to be provided by way of a Further Revised Estimate (FREV) which will be presented to the Oireachtas by the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Services, Reform and Digitalisation in due course.

The additional funding will be allocated against the following Housing Subheads:

A.3 - Local Authority Housing €56m

A.11 - Capital Advance Leasing Facility (CALF) €54m

A.28 - Cost Rental Equity Loan (CREL) €295m

A.31 - Affordable Housing Fund (AHF) €45m

Through this funding, some 3,000 new homes are expected to be delivered over the period 2025-2027, of which, 2,261 new homes will be delivered through the Cost Rental Equity Loan (CREL) and the Affordable Housing Fund (AHF). A further 734 new homes will be delivered through the Social Housing Investment Programme (SHIP) and the Capital Advance Leasing Facility (CALF).

To further increase the supply of affordable, high-quality housing for both buyers and renters in high-demand areas across Ireland, I have recently allocated funding to deliver 849 new cost rental and affordable purchase homes across ten different local authorities. Further information can be found at the below link: www.gov.ie/en/press-release/517c0-minister-browne-allocates-168m-funding-for-849-new-cost-rental-and-affordable-purchase-homes/.

As with all Exchequer-supported projects, my Department, as approving authority, assesses each project application for suitability, value for money and compliance with the various requirements of the applicable funding scheme. My Department is in the process of issuing approval letters in respect of social housing projects being supported through the additional funding and I expect to be able to make an announcement in respect of this shortly.

My Department continues to approve proposals and work with all relevant stakeholders to deliver social, affordable and cost rental housing at scale.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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854. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if any capital advance leasing fund (CALF) or cost-rental equity loan (CREL)-funded projects currently under construction have had their staged CALF or CREL payments delayed; and if so, the number, including the total number of units, and for what reason. [11156/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) are important partners for local authorities in the delivery of social housing. My Department and local authorities administer a number of funding programmes to assist AHBs with the cost of building, acquiring and leasing new social housing units.

The Capital Advance Leasing Facility (CALF) funding is capital support provided to AHBs by local authorities to facilitate the funding of construction or purchase of new social housing units. This loan facility can support between 25% and 30% of the eligible capital cost of the housing project, with the remaining finance sourced by the AHBs from private lenders (usually the Housing Finance Agency (HFA)). The housing units are provided to local authorities for social housing use under long-term lease arrangements, known as Payment and Availability Agreements.

The local authority issues the CALF monies to the AHB and the local authority, in turn, recoups same from the Department. The remainder of the capital cost that is sourced by the AHB through other borrowings, to which my Department or the local authorities are not party.

The Cost Rental Equity Loan (CREL) funding Scheme is available to AHBs to provide affordable rented accommodation to those who meet the income eligibility requirements for cost rental homes. The nature of the Cost Rental model means that Cost Rental homes are advertised and made available at a certain rent level, which is needed to cover the costs of delivery and provision. Cost rents must be at least 25% below prevailing market rents. The scheme provides funding on a sliding scale basis up to 55% of the total capital cost to finance the development or acquisition of new Cost Rental homes. The scheme model incorporates a mix of long term loan alongside a state equity investment (up to a maximum of 20% of capital costs).

I can also confirm that there have not been any delays to CALF and CREL payments being issued by my Department. Once all the necessary documentation has been received and the necessary checks carried out, all payments have issued on time.