Coveney says developers will be offered incentives for more social housing

Minister for Housing Simon Coveney has said developers will be offered incentives to increase the percentage of social housing in new projects.

However, Mr Coveney has ruled out increasing the mandatory minimum provision of 10 per cent of social housing, arguing that this would be “too crude” an instrument and “naive”.

Speaking at the opening on Friday of a Clúid Housing agency scheme in Galway - the first of its type to be funded by the European Investment Bank - Mr Coveney also said that “streamlining the planning system” would be a “big part” of the Government’s new housing strategy, which will be published in about three weeks.

This would ensure backers of large developments did not have to wait two years for a planning decision which “should take place within six months”, he said.

“We need to make sure that the process is robust -that the public have an opportunity to make observations or objections - but that we get decisions in a relatively quick pace,” he said.

He reiterated his commitment to far greater integration of public and private housing, but ruled out changing the Part V mandatory minimum requirement of 10 per cent of social housing .

“That doesn’t mean that you can’t go way beyond 10 per cent,” he said.

“In fact, in some cases developers will build whole housing estates, and will then sell them to approved housing bodies for affordable accommodation or for social housing,” he said.

“The funding of developments is much more challenging now than it would have been 10 years ago .”

The 15-unit Clúid housing scheme in Galway - formerly a National Asset Management Agency (Nama) acquisition - would serve as a "template" for new housing schemes, Mr Coveney added.

He told new tenants, including Amy Galvin (28) and Louise Borre (42), that they "shouldn't be just feeling lucky" when it is the "responsibility of the State" to ensure they are not homeless.

Ms Galvin, from Ballinfoile in Galway, was living with her grandparents when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer three years ago. She had to suspend her studies while she had 34 rounds of chemotherapy and two stem cell procedures, and said she was currently stable.

“Stress is a major component in cancer, so to have a home just a month before my 29th birthday is an early present... and the icing on the cake,”Ms Galvin said.

Louise Borre has lived for the past seven months in emergency accommodation in Galway city, having become homeless after she became ill.

She had previously worked for a multinational in the city. Ms Borre said her life had “begun again” when she was informed in June that her nomination by Galway City Council for a Clúid housing unit was successful.