The release of further State lands in Galway and Kildare to bolster a Government plan to provide 10,000 "affordable houses" was announced yesterday by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern.
The housing initiative was part of the Sustaining Progress partnership programme, but the Government has been criticised for the slow pace of its delivery.
At a meeting of the social partners in Dublin yesterday, however, Mr Ahern said the Government was committed to delivering the project.
The release of lands announced yesterday had the potential to cater for 1,000 housing units. "Together with additional land from the local authorities, the total potential yield for the initiative is now 8,891 units," he said.
Just over a year ago, Mr Ahern announced the first phase of the project through the immediate release of 309 acres of State lands in Dublin, Meath and Kildare.
The project, which helped secure union support for Sustaining Progress, was aimed at people who, until the housing boom, could have afforded to take out mortgages but now find themselves excluded from the market. The Government was forced to re-state its commitment to the plan last December after it emerged that work had yet to begin on any of the 10,000 houses promised.
A mid-term review of Sustaining Progress, circulated to the social partners at yesterday's meeting at Dublin Castle, said "substantial progress" had been made on the initiative.
It said 24 sites had been identified so far, but the timescale for delivery and the number of units on each site was "being determined in planning the projects".
Mr Ahern said alternative strategies to fast-track delivery of the houses were now to be pursued.
These included "the possibility of swapping valuable sites in return for affordable housing in a manner that ensures more units, quicker delivery and better value for money".
The initiative, he added, would not detract from the funding available for existing social and affordable housing programmes.
"Exchequer spending on the provision of affordable housing and other social housing programmes will amount to over €1.8 billion in 2004," he said.
In regard to Sustaining Progress in general, he acknowledged the "sense of frustration" expressed by some social partnership groups about the slow place of progress in some areas.
As well as setting out national pay increases, Sustaining Progress included commitments on a range of issues including education, child poverty, health, community employment and alcohol and drug abuse.
Union members are currently balloting on a proposed pay increase, of 5.5 per cent for most workers, covering the remaining 18 months of the partnership programme. The stance likely to be adopted by the State's biggest union, SIPTU, will be clearer today when it holds a special consultative conference in Dublin.
