The Government has committed to an ambitious scale of delivery of affordable housing coming through the new affordable housing initiative under Sustaining Progress. The announcement in July this year of the immediate release of two sites in Dublin, and agreement to a proposal relating to two further sites in Meath and Kildare was a critical step in ensuring early delivery of affordable housing under this initiative. The Government is working with the parties to the pay agreement to define the precise terms of the initiative, including the eligibility criteria to apply to the target group.
With regard to the release of further State land for this initiative, a series of meetings have been held with other Departments and a review of local authority land is under way to allow a further report to Government on this matter in the near future. It is envisaged that local authorities will have an important role to play in the delivery of this initiative. Work on implementing the initiative is progressing as a priority and this is firm evidence of the Government's determination to making measurable progress in the implementation of this initiative by the mid-term review of Sustaining Progress in mid-2004.