Council outlines housing delivery progress made

FINGAL County Council has exceeded its target for delivering social housing by 62 per cent between 2015 and 2017 having provided 2,241 homes.

That was one of the key statistics it outlined to an Oireachtas Committee recently. In a presentation, entitled ‘Funding and Delivery of Public Housing under Rebuilding Ireland’, the council’s Director of Housing, Margaret Geraghty, detailed the substantial progress being made by the local authority as it tackles the housing crisis.

Appearing, along with Senior Executive Officer Mary Egan before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, Ms Geraghty said the social housing needs of 3,422 families had been met since the introduction of its Social Housing Strategy in 2015.

Fingal County Council exceeded its target for delivering social housing by 62 per cent between 2015 and 2017 having provided 2,241 homes. 

Its target for 2018 alone is 1,637 homes, the second highest in the country, and higher than the target set for the previous three years.

“We are on track to meet this target and to date 1,181 homes have been delivered, which is 72 percent of the yearly target,” Ms Geraghty told the committee.

“The aim is for every household that has a need to be able to access an affordable home of good quality, which is suited to their needs and in a secure environment.”

Looking forward, Ms Geraghty said there are 26 active social housing sites across the region which will deliver 745 homes over the next two years. There have been 121 houses completed under the direct build programme to date.

The Oireachtas Committee was also told that the three council-owned landbanks at Ballymastone in Donabate, Church Fields in Mulhuddart and Cappaghfinn in Dublin 11 have potential to deliver upwards of 2,200 mixed tenure dwellings.

“We are in the process of developing land management plans for these sites in order to deliver their significant housing potential,” said Ms Geraghty. 

“It is envisaged that these developments would be of mixed tenure with social, affordable, cost rental, co-operative housing and private.”