Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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497. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the amount that has been allocated to each local authority under each programme for the delivery of social and affordable housing in 2025, including any loans; of this, the amount that has been drawn down to date; and of this, the amount that has been spent to date, broken down by local authority and funding stream. [57329/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Social and affordable Housing is delivered through a range of Local Authority and Approved Housing Body (AHB) delivery programmes. Capital expenditure on the delivery of new social homes is also supported by current funding provided through the Social Housing Current Expenditure Programme (SHCEP).

In 2025, Government has allocated almost €7.5 billion in capital investment for Housing, inclusive of Land Development Agency investment and Housing Finance Agency (HFA) lending. The 2025 capital funding is supplemented by €1.65 billion in current funding to address housing needs.

My Department does not provide specific allocations to local authorities, rather funding for housing programmes is made to the local authorities as programmes and projects advance and relevant claims fall due for payment.

The funding provided in 2025 (to end September) to local authorities in respect of the main capital housing delivery programmes is set out in the attached table. In addition to the funds channelled to local authorities, my Department also provides funding to other bodies, for example, the Housing Agency, for the management and operation of a broad range of housing programmes, including for the delivery of social and affordable homes.

In relation to the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP), Limerick City and County Council provides a highly effective HAP transactional shared service on behalf of all local authorities. This HAP Shared Services Centre (SSC) manages all HAP related rental transactions for the tenant, local authority and landlord. My Department does not recoup individual local authorities in respect of HAP rental payments in their administrative areas but rather recoups all landlord costs via the HAP SSC.

With regard to loans, local authorities are entirely independent corporate entities having full responsibility under law for the performance of their functions and the discharge of their governance and other responsibilities. The borrowing of money by a local authority is governed by Section 106 of the Local Government Act 2001. The decision to borrow is a reserved function of the local authority (i.e. the decision can only be made by elected members of a local authority). The borrowing must also be sanctioned by the appropriate Minister. As part of Ireland’s obligations under the Maastricht Treaty regarding general government deficit and debt and the requirements of the revised Economic Governance Framework, the total value of non-mortgage borrowing undertaken annually by the local authority sector is limited by a requirement that the sector remain neutral in terms of the General Government Balance (GGB). Annual borrowing capacity is determined by an analysis of the amount of principal to be paid on non-mortgage loans in that year. The limit on borrowing capacity for non-mortgage loans for 2025 is €118 million.

Local authorities are not provided with individual allocations from the annual borrowing capacity. Applications for loan sanction are received from local authorities and processed by my Department as they are received.

To date in 2025, Ministerial sanction of €10m has been provided for borrowing by Longford County Council for the purpose of social and affordable housing. This amount has not yet been drawn down. A further €10m and €2.2m has been sanctioned in 2025 for borrowing by Dublin City Council and Monaghan County Council respectively for cost rental housing projects. Of these sanctions, €2.2m has been drawn down by Monaghan County Council in 2025.

It is a matter for each local authority to maximise local income sources and manage its own spending, in the context of the annual budgetary process.