Funding of €84 million has been approved to build 1,770 affordable homes on council sites across the country.

The funds under the Serviced Sites Fund will progress 25 infrastructure projects in 13 local authority areas.

Announcing the approval today, 06 June, Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy said: "We've seen recently that house prices have been cooling down, even falling in some parts of the country as supply increases. But for too many people home ownership still remains out of reach. Unless the government steps in to bridge the gap, young couples and workers may not be able to afford to buy their own home in our cities and large towns. That's why we are using local authority land to build more affordable homes for young workers and couples, and that's why these approvals announced today are so important. The market will not fix our housing problems alone, the government must lead on providing more affordable homes."

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The announcement also represents the second round of approvals under the Serviced Sites Fund, which has a total of €310 million available to support local authorities out to 2021. It was established to provide key facilitating infrastructure, on public lands, to support the delivery of affordable homes to purchase or rent.

This means funding support has now been allocated to enable delivery of almost 3,200 affordable homes for purchase under the scheme.

The Minister added: "Housing, and in particular affordable housing, is one of the critical challenges facing our country. That is why I sought and achieved a trebling of the Serviced Sites Fund in last year's Budget, to provide €310 million to get local authority sites up and running to deliver at least 6,200 affordable homes, working towards a programme of 10,000, where they are most needed. My Department will now work with local authorities to develop these proposals and bring the plans to fruition."

The local authorities to benefit from the new funding include Dublin City Council, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, Galway County Council, South Dublin County Council, Cork County Council, Fingal County Council, Galway City Council, Kildare County Council, Kilkenny County Council, Limerick City and County Council, Waterford City and County Council, Wicklow County Council and Wexford County Council.

These homes are being built based on commitments delivered in the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan.

(CM/MH)