Construction to begin on 80 social housing units in Louth

Construction is set to begin "immediately" on 80 new social housing units in Dunleer, as part of Ireland's first-ever PPP contract for social housing.

On behalf of the Department of Housing, the National Development Finance Agency (NDFA), part of the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), today announced contract award of the Social Housing Bundle 1 PPP project to the Comhar consortium.

Construction of 534 homes, across five Local Authorities in Dublin City, South Dublin, Louth, Kildare and Wicklow County Council’s, will start immediately, with 80 of the units in Dunleer, County Louth.

According to a statement issued today by the Department of Housing, the NDFA acted as agent for the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government (the Sanctioning Authority) and Dublin City Council (the Sponsoring Agency on behalf of all local authorities involved).

Commenting on the news today, Minister Eoghan Murphy said: 

“I am very pleased to confirm that the formal contracts have been signed for the first bundle of sites under the PPP social housing programme, which will deliver 534 new homes across six sites in Dublin City, South Dublin, Kildare, Louth and Wicklow County Council’s areas.

"This is the first of three bundles of schemes which will deliver around 1,500 new social homes and is an important and innovative delivery mechanism within Rebuilding Ireland.

"I remain committed to continuing to deliver under our targets as set out under Rebuilding Ireland.

"This innovative way of delivering social housing through a Public-Private Partnership structure, which will secure delivery of over 500 homes in a single bundle, represents another important means that my Department are developing in order to increase our social housing stock.”