Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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343. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of proposals from each of the local authorities and from the Land Development Agency for housing developments, either social or affordable homes, which are awaiting approval from his Department; the aggregate number of homes involved; and the average turnaround time for approvals. [22916/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Government is fully committed to working with all stakeholders to deliver social, affordable and cost rental homes at scale with a record level of investment being provided for the delivery of Housing in 2025; capital funding of €6.5 billion supplemented by current funding of €1.65 billion.

The number of new build social homes in the pipeline for delivery in the three year period 2025 to 2027, circa 36,000 homes, is the highest ever for a three year period. The strongest national delivery of social housing since 1975 was recorded in 2022 with 10,254 social homes delivered and this was exceeded in 2023 with 11,938 homes.

As with all Exchequer funded 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.

There will always be projects on hand with my Department which are either under assessment or the subject of further engagement with LAs or AHBs. This is perfectly normal in the context of the circa 2,500 Social and Affordable housing projects which have been or are being handled by my Department currently which are scheduled for delivery in the period 2025 – 2027.

The Local Authorities role is to make applications to the Department for approval of funding for social, affordable purchase and Part V housing, which encompasses developments being progressed by the Land Development Agency (LDA).

Specifically, when housing is being delivered by the Land Development Agency for Cost Rental, the LDA is eligible to make applications under the Secure Tenancy and Affordable Rental Investment Scheme. This investment supports the affordable delivery of cost rental homes by private operators, ensuring these homes are rented at a minimum of 25% below comparable market rental levels in high demand urban areas and is managed by the Housing Agency on behalf of the Department. To date, 8 applications from the LDA have been approved under this scheme supporting the delivery of 1,423 Cost Rental Units.

The Affordable Housing Fund (AHF) is available to local authorities as a direct subvention towards the development costs of providing affordable houses. In the case of affordable purchase homes in the Dublin region, subsidy of €50,000 - €100,000 per affordable housing unit is available depending on the density of housing units per hectare on the development, with subsidy of up to €150,000 available to support the delivery of higher density cost rental homes in the cities. To date, AHF funding approval is in place for the delivery of 4,184 affordable purchase homes and 1,263 cost rental homes.

My Department has long established arrangements for producing appropriate data and statistics, which is readily available to the public. The information sought is not readily available and its compilation would involve a disproportionate amount of time and work to compile. Data on delivery and project approvals will be published as part of my Department's normal reporting process.