Kilkenny County Council is on track to exceed the social housing target set out under the Rebuilding Ireland plan.

The local authority, in partnership with the voluntary sector, will deliver 105 new build social housing units by the end of the year.

Kilkenny County Council's social housing building programme currently has 220 units under construction, with a further 240 in the process of getting to building stage via planning and procurement. Developments include 38 houses at Bolton, Callan, 54 at Ballybought Street, Kilkenny and 18 at Piltown.

These new homes together with an additional 80 targeted for acquisition and lease, by the Council and its partners, will add a total of 185 new houses to the social housing stock in the local authority area by the end of this year.

A week-long information campaign is also being held to highlight the ongoing work of the Council to provide social housing solutions and supports and to facilitate increased building in the public and private sector.

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Speaking at the Housing Department at Kilkenny County Council today, Mary Mulholland, Director of Services, said: "We are delivering housing in Kilkenny. We are adding to the stock we have available for social housing by delivering new units, and by acquiring or leasing existing units. In the last two years Kilkenny County Council has added 116 homes to its housing stock available for use as public housing.

"We are building social housing units, we are supporting approved housing bodies in the voluntary sector to build and we are facilitating and actively stimulating building in the private sector. There are 31 planning applications for new multi-unit residential build developments currently in place in the county with 913 of those permitted units in Kilkenny City and 197 throughout the rest of the county. With the support of the local infrastructure housing activation fund (LIHAF) we are in the process of providing the supporting infrastructure required to open up new lands at Kilkenny's Western Environs for private residential development.

"We have to tackle the housing supply situation and we have to tackle it in the right way to deliver the right housing solutions in the right places for the people who need them. That means careful planning, working with communities to ensure sustainability, design that will last the test of time and meet the needs of occupants."

(CM/MH)