It is delivering for our people and is taking hold in challenging times. We will continue to drive that forward because we have provided the most substantial housing plan. It is not only a plan, but a plan that is being implemented. It is a plan that is taking hold and will work.

As the Deputy will know, the programme for Government sets out a commitment to examine defects in housing having regard to the joint Oireachtas committee report, Safe as Houses?, and to assist owners of latent defect properties by identifying what the financial options for those affected by them would be. In response, in February 2021, I established a working group to examine the matter. The group was chaired by former Donegal County Council CEO Seamus Neely and included stakeholders who did good work and set the t…

First, the defective block scheme, as the Deputy knows, is an Exchequer and Government commitment in the region of €2.7 billion to assist homeowners in need of help in affected counties. We needed to underpin that with legislation. I also want to say to the Deputy that the mistakes of the first defective concrete blocks scheme need to be learned. They were set up under regulations and not on a sound basis under legislation. I have said to the Construction Defects Alliance that we will need legislation. On the Deput…

All options will be considered. I actually do not agree with the Deputy and I do not think the pyrite remediation scheme or that legislation would be a sound footing to set up a significant piece of work like this. Some 28,000 homeowners and households participated in the survey, so we have a good handle on the scope, the range and types of defects, from fire defects to water ingress to structural defects. We also have quite a good handle on what the approximate cost would be - in or around €20,000 per unit. I am a…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 2 and 3 together. As Deputy Naughten will know, Housing for All was published in September 2021. He is right that housing limits have not changed for ten or 11 years. As part of the broad suite of social housing reform, I committed to reviewing income eligibility for social housing. The review, which examined the efficiency of the current banding model and income limits applicable to local authorities, has been completed. I have recently approved implementation of some of its recomm…

The changes that I made already in respect of the five counties to which Deputy Naughten referred were changes that very obviously needed to be made. I was able to make the changes quite quickly. In fairness, I recognise that the Deputy has welcomed those changes, which take effect from 1 October. For those who have read the report, and I am not saying that the Deputies have not read it-----

I am not addressing Deputy Ó Broin directly. It is not all about him. I am just saying that I would ask those who have not read the report to do so. I am not satisfied with elements of the report submitted to me, to be very frank, as I said during the previous oral question session that we had. I do not believe that some of the recommendations within the report go far enough. We need to change the income eligibility limits. As Deputy Naughten rightly stated, it is over ten years since they were changed. To Deputy Ó…

Any fair analysis would show I have already made significant changes in the five counties I could address straight away. To Deputy Naughten's point, I am looking at what we can do with regard to discretion. I have received a number of good examples of cases where people were marginally over the limit because of a change in circumstances in the previous year and have since fallen back under the limit. Some local authorities are insisting that those people go back for a new application. I am happy to use this opportu…

The affordable housing fund is available to assist all local authorities in bringing forward affordable housing schemes. Following the publication of the Government's Housing for All plan last September, I asked local authorities to prepare housing delivery action plans. Each local authority, including Clare County Council, was asked to assess the level of housing demand with affordability constraint projected for its area based on the housing need and demand assessment, and to plan accordingly. Clare County Counci…

I did not say that.

Let us not try to create a controversy that is not there.

Let us be straight about this. There are two schemes being worked on by Clare County Council. It must submit those plans to me. In a broad sense, we have already approved approximately 1,800 affordable purchase homes, led by local authorities in 12 different counties and under 27 projects. New counties, such as Wicklow, Westmeath and Limerick, have recently come into that fold. The fund is open and those are the first authorities to avail of it. In his opening remarks, the Deputy referenced the first home scheme wh…

No one is saying that Clare County Council is dragging its feet. The fund has been open for approximately one year. We have already approved 27 projects across the country in that year. Many of those are now being built. Over 1,800 affordable homes will be provided through local authorities. I have given examples of other counties that have made submissions. This is not back-of-an-envelope stuff. A proper submission must be made. We will provide the funding accordingly. I have changed the affordable housing fund to…

I might sit down with the Deputy and explain the schemes to him in more detail. I am happy to meet him. To be fair to the local authority, it has to work on making a submission to seek the subvention under the affordable housing fund. The fund is open to all local authorities, including Clare County Council. We will continue to work with the local authority to bring those schemes forward. I await those schemes. I am more than happy to engage directly with Clare County Council, as I have done with many other local a…

As the Deputy knows, Housing for All is our plan to increase the supply of housing to get to an average of 33,000 homes per year over the next decade. Exchequer funding of more than €4 billion is available in 2022 to deliver the increased number of new social and affordable homes. Overall expenditure on the housing programme will not be determined, as the Deputy knows, until the end of the year. Typically, quarter 4 sees the highest level of capital expenditure as my Department recoups claims submitted by local aut…

The Dublin Housing Delivery Group, which I established and includes the four Dublin local authorities working with the Land Development Agency, LDA, has done a very good piece of work in highlighting the issue of the need for additional lands, particularly post 2024. It is looking at mechanisms whereby local authorities can purchase such land. We hope that councillors in local authorities will support the social and affordable housing developments that are brought forward at local authority level because we have th…

I am not saying anything about those memos at all. I am saying to the Deputy we have €4 billion to invest in social and affordable housing this year. We are working towards delivering social housing at scale - the highest number of new builds have been delivered this year than in any year since the foundation of the State - and affordable housing, also at scale, through our local authorities and the LDA's Project Tosaigh. I referenced Mallow earlier, where the first affordable homes have been delivered through Proj…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 7, 14, 36, 41 and 45 together. I acknowledge the Deputy's input on this. We have discussed it. This scheme can be vitally important in breathing life back into our towns, villages and rural areas. I will explain where we are at the moment. As Deputy Naughten will know, pathway 4 of Housing for All sets out a blueprint to address vacancy and make efficient use of our existing housing stock. All of us want to do that and we should do so. Many areas in our cities, towns and villages of…

Here is the oracle.

Is there a question? The Deputy should ask a question.