Irish Housing Minister, Michael Finneran has announced the allocation of €852.5m towards housing programmes for local authorities.

However, that represents a substantial drop from the €1.078bn allocated in 2009.

The reduction comes as more than 60,000 people find themselves on local authority housing waiting lists.

A breakdown of the 2010 allocations shows €366.5m going to the provision of local authority housing – with an additional €25m also being reserved for leasing proposals.

€240m is to be spent on regeneration works while almost €220m is going towards voluntary housing bodies. An allocation of €30m to provide accommodation for the Travelling community is also included.

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The funding will allow authorities to complete construction, acquire or lease around 9,000 houses this year including new dwellings completed under regeneration projects.

Minister Finneran said: "The funding of almost €880 million I am providing to local authorities will assist in providing good quality sustainable housing for families.

"While funding for construction of social housing is significantly less than last year, priority has been given to the leasing scheme while at the same time maintaining funding levels for voluntary housing and regeneration programmes. The funding remains a very significant pool of resources in support of local authority and voluntary/co-operative housing activities to meet the needs of individuals and their families."

The Minister reaffirmed the importance of the long term leasing scheme in meeting housing output targets through a more efficient and effective use of available public resources.

"Notwithstanding shrinking resources, this initiative has the capacity to deliver at least 2,000 new homes in 2010 with the potential to allow for a significant increase in social housing supply over the coming years," the Minister added.

(GK/BMcC)