Local authorities will be under a “Damocles sword” to use a €1 billion housing infrastructure fund before it is withdrawn by the Government from projects that are taking too long. More than 80 projects across most local authority areas in the State were announced on Tuesday, with the Government claiming these will “directly” lead to 86,000 new homes. But Minister for Housing James Browne was unable to say how many of the “shovel ready” projects – most of which relate to roads – will result in new homes being delivered before a key deadline in 2030, when the Government has promised to have built 300,000 new homes. The Housing Infrastructure Investment Fund opened in January and received 138 applications from local authorities before a February deadline. Browne on Tuesday announced that 82 projects had been chosen for multiannual funding. These include road, electricity and water developments that the Government believes will directly lead to new housing being built. Some of the infrastructure funding will support housing projects that already have planning permission, while Minister of State John Cummins said he believed planning permission for more projects will be granted on the basis of this infrastructure funding. Browne said he could not say what proportion of the 86,000 new homes could or should be ready by the end of this decade. He said it was “going to be a matter for the local authorities to quickly move on these projects”.“These projects are identified as critical, they are very close to being shovel ready. But if local authorities don’t move quickly on these projects, the money will be reassigned. This money is not going to be left sitting with a local authority,” he said. Browne said the decision to withdraw and reassign funding would depend on the size of the project and how long it is taking. He said “a small project that is supposedly shovel ready should be moved very quickly”.The Minister said he would expect most of the 86,000 homes to be progressing “a lot quicker” than within 10 years. “We want to make sure that these houses are going to be delivered, and so we’re satisfied that these projects are good to go,” he said. “But the Damocles Sword, if you like, hanging over the local authorities is, if you don’t move quickly on these, we will reassign it, and that is in the very clear information we’ve given to the local authorities in terms of these projects – that they need to move quickly, depending what stage it’s at, they need to move at those stages very quickly.” The Minister said if local authorities do not tell the Government’s Housing Activation Office that they have advanced to the next stage of the project “quickly enough”, they will be warned that they are about to lose their funding. Cummins said each local authority had to demonstrate the “life cycle” of their projects until the end of 2028 as part of their application. “Like Minister Browne said, if they’re not meeting those milestones, then we will look at reallocating that funding, because it will be clear that they won’t be able to deliver the project in the timeline that they set.” The Government has also claimed the fund could indirectly help to build another 113,000 homes, which could benefit from local road and infrastructure development. Examples of projects included in the plan are a €20 million road widening project in Dunsink in Fingal, which the Government claims will release land for 2,500 residential units and a €10 million water infrastructure project under the N67 in Ardaun, Co Galway which is expected to “directly” unlock land for 2,500 residential units.