Dun Laoghaire Fine Gael TD, and Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Mary Mitchell O’Connor welcomes Government funding that will deliver 14,800 new homes to the area.

The €40 million in funding for Dun Laoghaire represents Fine Gael’s commitment in the Programme for Government to increase access to public infrastructure and enable more housing to be developed.

Some 5,000 houses will be built in the area by 2021, with the potential for 14,800 houses to be built here in total in the long term.

Minister Mitchell O’Connor said: “This funding will help deliver a strong mix of private, rental and social housing delivery at appropriate locations and create new and attractive local communities to live in at affordable prices and rents.”

“In recent months I have been at a number of significant jobs announcements in the constituency, most recently Microsoft, where 600 additional jobs will be created. I am acutely aware of the importance of quality housing stock in attracting companies and workers to the area and this funding will help to significantly increase the number of homes being built.

“These homes are important; we know there are housing and accommodation shortages in certain areas. Fine Gael is dedicated to improving the lives of families and children. Everyone has a right to a home and we are ensuring this is possible. We will continue this work throughout the 32nd Dáil” the Minister added.

“Together with other targeted and complementary measures under the Government’s Action Plan for Housing, the delivery of this housing in the next four years will have an extremely positive impact on the availability of housing in the short to medium term.”

“Through the work undertaken, we are now making progress in recalibrating a sector that has faced enormous challenges in recent years.

“Today’s announcement of the Local Infrastructure Housing Activation projects signals what can be achieved from a collaborative approach involving local authorities, public bodies and housing providers, working together to maximize the impact on housing development and delivery from the focussed use of available public funds.”

The Minister went on to say that Dun Laoghaire’s new funding represents an effective use of targeted funding to achieve real results for ordinary citizens, adding that the announcement will lead to the delivery of 23,000 housing units nationally by 2021 and an overall figure of over 69,000 housing units in the next ten to fifteen years in areas where the shortage of supply is critical.

“Through the projects announced today under LIHAF, together with the completion of our review of the Government’s Capital Plan and the development of a new National Planning Framework later this year, we will see further sustainable progress being made to address our housing needs and accelerate our economic and social recovery”.

This is a great example of ‘joined-up Government’ and has acted as the trigger to draw both public and private partners together to leverage much wider public and private sector investment.,” The Minister concluded.