Minister for Housing and Planning, Jan O'Sullivan, TD, has announced a new two year €100m social housing construction programme.

The plan will see approximately 630 new social homes built over the next two years.

Some 65% of the investment will support a mainstream local authority house building programme – the largest such investment in many years.

The remaining investment will be reserved for homes for people with a special housing need – people with a disability, people who are homeless and the elderly. This tranche of funding will be invested in projects agreed between the not-for-profit housing sector and local authorities.

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"This is the largest social housing construction programme in many years. It is a statement of this Government's firm commitment to traditional local authority construction as an important element in meeting housing need."

In the coming weeks, the Department of the Environment will be assessing construction proposals that local authorities have submitted and allocations for individual projects will be announced in January, with planning and construction to start immediately.

"This investment will provide hundreds of families with good quality, permanent social homes. It is also a significant boost to the construction sector. Many of the proposals my Department is assessing are relatively small infill developments. This means they should be able to proceed with the minimum delay and also that smaller, locally-based contractors are well placed to compete for the work."

In December, the Department will issue a call for proposals from the not-for-profit housing sector for the €35m funding available in the 2014-2015 period. It is expected that the assessment and allocation of this funding will be completed by March 2014 and projects will then proceed.

(CD/JP)