Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien TD has today (Wednesday 7th October) published the statistical outputs for social housing delivered across Quarter 1 and Quarter 2 of 2020 – from January to the end of June. (Link to data here).
The Minister also published the Social Housing Construction Status Report to end June 2020. As expected, the statistics show that the COVID-19 pandemic has proven a serious impediment to progress. Just under 10,000 households were supported across the first 6 months of this year, under build, acquisition, leasing, HAP and RAS – 35% of the total expected delivery this year. That included just 1,467 built, acquired or leased homes, which is well below the level that would have been expected at the mid-way stage of the year. Commenting Minister O’Brien said, “These figures show that delivery of social housing has been very much impacted by the outbreak of COVID-19 in late Q1, and the significant restrictions during Q2. “Despite the closure of construction sites, local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) continued to prioritise social housing, making the best use of available homes, and through continued processing of HAP applications to ensure that allocations and assistance remained steady throughout. “As we look ahead, it is extremely important that we mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on overall delivery to the greatest extent possible. We have a goal, to provide housing support to some 27,500 households this year, and despite a challenging first half, I am committed to delivering on that. “Immediately following my appointment I established a High Level Housing Delivery Group made up of representatives from the CCMA, the Housing Delivery Co-Ordination Office, The Housing Agency, the Irish Council for Social Housing, the Housing Alliance and senior officials. We took stock of the situation, assessed the likely gap in delivery as a result of delays on construction and set about finding opportunities to mitigate. “I then launched a ‘Call for Housing 2020’, new national call for property owners with vacant properties to make them available for use as social housing, in particular one bed properties, larger family homes and homes that are or can be adapted for those with a disability. “Following that I secured €40m in funding under the July stimulus to assist local authorities to urgently refurbish vacant social housing stock and make it available for allocation to families and individuals on waiting lists this year. “It is really important to me that the overall under-delivery on new build, which was unavoidable as a result of COVID-19, doesn’t have a consequential impact on households waiting urgently on keys. These mitigating actions will ensure that we are still providing long term homes to the same number of households, and that’s what matters this year. “However the focus now rightly turns to getting new builds back on track and new activity continuing to move at pace. “The Housing Delivery Co-Ordination Office have confirmed to me that:
“While urgently focussed on 2020 activity, establishing solid pipelines for 2021, 2022 and 2023 continues. This Government has committed to delivering 50,000 social homes under the Programme for Government and I want a very strong focus of that to be on new build. I want to really see ambition and innovation from local authorities to deliver at scale on their own land. “To aid this I have recently announced a revised single stage process for Local Authority builds, raising the threshold from €2m to €6m, and I will shortly be announcing details of a new affordable housing scheme. “I commend local authorities for their ongoing hard work during these challenging times and I encourage them to use all of the resources that I have made available to them to deliver the maximum number of homes over the next few months and into 2021,” concluded Minister O’Brien. · Libraries to use funding to reach out to older people, marginalised and disadvantaged groups
· Digital apps to assist people with low literacy levels, learning differences, visual or hearing impairments. · Ministers praise role played by libraries during Covid-19 Pandemic Older people, families with low literacy skills and disadvantaged and marginalised groups are to benefit from a funding package of €713,500 that will be channelled through the country’s libraries. Some €650,000 will be provided from the 2020 Dormant Accounts Action Plan and €63,500 will be provided from Libraries funding, which is administered by the Department of Rural and Community Development. The funding has a specific focus and is aimed at groups such as the elderly, the Traveller Community, those with disabilities and people living in Direct Provision. Part of the funding will be used to purchase literacy/numeracy digital skills licences/apps to assist people with low literacy levels, learning differences, visual or hearing impairments. Other examples that the funding will be used for include:
The funding was announced today by Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys TD, and Minister of State with responsibility for Community Development and Charities, Joe O’Brien TD. Announcing the funding, Minister Humphreys said: “This funding will have real positive benefits for so many people. I am delighted that this funding has been allocated to libraries across the country. The last few months have been very difficult and any funding which helps our libraries to reach out and engage with communities is most welcome.” Also welcoming the funding, Minister O’Brien said: “I am delighted to approve these projects under the 2020 Dormant Accounts Action Plan. The projects are diverse in nature and target a multiplicity of groups including Travellers, New Irish, residents of Direct Provision Centres, the elderly who have experienced isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, autism, deaf and blind communities, and people with learning differences such as dyslexia. This funding is building on the excellent projects which were delivered last year and will increase the public library capacity to continue that great work of fostering community well-being and building community cohesion.” The funding will provide: (i) €512,626 for events and programmes which reaches out to marginalised, socially excluded and disadvantaged communities. (ii) €180,874 to purchase literacy/numeracy digital skills licences/apps to assist people with low literacy levels, learning differences, visual or hearing impairments. (iii) €20,000 to carry out a review of library services in prisons and also to develop a ‘Design Thinking’ pilot for libraries. Minister Humphreys thanked the local authorities and the library staff for their ongoing commitment and support to the public library service. “The local authorities have supported the library service during what has been an incredibly challenging year and by matching my Department’s funding of €713,500 with €83,722 of their own they have shown their commitment to ensuring that these programmes will have a really positive impact in their communities.” Minister O’Brien concluded: “It is great to see the investment in literacy and numeracy digital apps and licences. These can be expensive and very difficult to afford for families who need them. I hope that families, schools and afterschool clubs avail of these and benefit from them.” Details of the allocation per county is set out in Appendix 1. -Cabinet also approves reduction in prescription charges
& reduction in Drugs Payment Scheme- Local Minister Darragh O’Brien TD has backed the move to extend medical cards for over 56,000 people over the age of 70. Minister O’Brien also gave approval at Cabinet for the reduction in prescription charges and the Drugs Payment Scheme. Under the new measures the gross income limit for medical card eligibility for those aged 70 or over will be increased to €550 per week for a single person or €1,050 per week for a couple. This represents an increase of €50 and €150 respectively and will mean an extra 56,000 people over the age of 70 will be eligible for a medical card. Prescription charges will be reduced by 50c and the Drugs Payment Scheme threshold will be reduced from €124 per month to €114 per month. Commenting Minister O’Brien said, “Today Cabinet approved these measures which will take effect on November 1st. This will undoubtedly help people all across Dublin Fingal and is a demonstration of the Government’s commitment to fulfilling the obligations in the Programme for Government. “Looking after those who are older and more vulnerable among us is a key priority and this measure will not only ease the financial burden on people aged over 70 but also encourage them to seek medical attention sooner rather than later. “Those under 70 will now only pay a maximum of €15 per month for prescribed medicines while those over 70 will only pay a maximum of €10 per month for prescribed medicines. 1.38 million people availing of the Drugs Payment Scheme will have €10 per month back in their packet – these are measures to be welcomed,” he concluded.
The funding was announced today by Minister of State with responsibility for Community Development and Charities, Joe O’Brien TD. The funding from the Dormant Accounts Fund is designed to support community and voluntary organisations, charities and social enterprises that are experiencing financial difficulties as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Once-off cash injections of between €2,000 and €200,000 are being awarded to qualifying organisations that provide critical services to those most vulnerable in society. This will help with short term cash flow issues caused by the COVID-19 crisis. This includes organisations from both phase 1 and 2 (unincorporated charities) of the fund and is on top of three previous tranches of funding announced in June, July and September 2020 which allocated funding of over €25m to 489 organisations. These organisations provide services in a diverse range of areas including homeless services, cancer supports, counselling and family supports, addiction services and assistance for older and vulnerable persons. Some of the successful applicants today include: The Alzheimer Society of Ireland €200,000 Irish Kidney Association €200,000 North West Simon €109,186 Amach! LGBT+ clg €15,215 Speaking this morning, Minister O’Brien said : “I am very happy to join with my colleagues at the Department of Health to announce a further tranche of funding under the COVID 19 Stability fund to Community and Voluntary organisations and Social Enterprises that are experiencing financial difficulties at this time. My Government colleagues and myself acknowledge and appreciate the work that these organisations do in their communities and I hope that this funding will go some way to support the continuation of their valuable services”. “I would also like to take this opportunity thank sincerely all community and voluntary organisations for the work they have done throughout this difficult period to support and provide valuable services to the most disadvantaged in our communities. Their work remains a very important part of getting Ireland through this pandemic and Government recognises and is grateful for that contribution”. Minister Butler stated: “I am pleased to see the release of the fourth tranche of funding under the COVID-19 Stability Fund. Community and voluntary organisations, charities and social enterprises play an important role in our society, and their volunteers and workers are incredibly dedicated. This funding will help them to continue to do this. With my colleagues in the Department of Health, I welcome these additional resources which will help these organisations to continue their valuable work.” Minister Feighan stated: “I am pleased that the fourth tranche of funding under the COVID-19 Stability Fund is going ahead. This funding will help community and voluntary organisations and charities to continue to contribute in these difficult times. With my colleagues in the Department of Health, I welcome the continuation of this important work.” Minister Rabbitte stated: “I am pleased that the fourth tranche of funding under the COVID-19 Stability Fund is being released. Community and voluntary organisations, with their dedicated staff and volunteers, contribute enormously to our society. This funding will, in the constraints of Covid, help them to continue to make these contributions. With my colleagues in the Department of Health, I welcome the release of this funding to these organisations at this time.” A full list of successful applicants under Tranche four is available here. Notes: Following the announcement of a €40 million funding package for the sector, applications were invited for the €35 million Stability Scheme. The Stability Scheme, administered by Pobal, opened for phase one applications in May 2020, with phase two applications opened in August. Over a thousand applications were received during that time. The Stability Scheme will provide immediate, short term cash flow to qualifying organisations which provide critical services to those most vulnerable in society. The funding will be prioritised for those organisations which are most in need and have seen their trading and/or fundraising income drop significantly during the crisis. With funding being provided from the Dormant Accounts Fund, the Stability Scheme will provide a once off grant to qualifying organisations. In line with the objectives of the Dormant Accounts Fund, the Stability Scheme will focus on organisations providing supports and services in the following sectors:
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November 2023
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