One has got to build capacity. That is why the Housing for All plan has already brought back the capacity of the construction sector to pre-pandemic levels and will create at least 29,000 new jobs. Some 9,000 new apprenticeships, in the 12 months to date, have already been filled in that space. That is how one does it. One must be open and honest with people. One must realise, by the way, that it is not just a question of saying to people not to build that and instead to come over and build our 40,000 homes. We tri…

I thank the Deputy for his question. It is an important one. A priority for me as Minister is to continue tackling the serious problem that is homelessness. The continuing increase in the numbers, which I flagged a number of months ago and which was to be expected, is of serious concern to me as I know it is to the Deputy. The Government, local authorities and others are making every effort to reduce homelessness. I will go through some more details shortly. Key to this is the delivery of new social housing and boo…

I thank the Deputy. To conclude my initial response, I also want to refer to mortgage to rent, which is a very important mechanism for preventing homelessness. Last year, I made some significant changes which came into effect from 14 February of this year. Last year, 678 borrowers availed of the mortgage to rent scheme. We are targeting 1,000 this year and in each year onwards and I think we will exceed that. It is really important that we increase supply and I am going to do that significantly this year. To respon…

This is a mechanism that we want to see work. The Deputy referred to the tenants in situ scheme in Dublin City Council, which it effectively ran itself. It has not been precluded from operating that scheme. We need to balance what we are doing to make sure those waiting for a long time on the list will not be waiting even longer. This is a preventive measure. I want to see it work. I have been really clear with the local authorities. I have had two housing summits with them recently. These summits involved all chie…

I am aware of the allegations that have been made. I understand they are denied by the board members specifically. It is important that we say that. I have appointed a senior counsel, Mr. Remy Farrell, to provide a report to inform my consideration of the matter. Any allegations of this nature, be they related to individuals or the process, must be taken very seriously. We have done so in advance of the recent public commentary on this. The terms of reference, to which the Deputy referred, and the timelines for the…

I assure the Deputy that they will be. He will see that very shortly, or in a matter of days, when we publish them. The work is now being concluded. It is important that the public have confidence in the board. We all have a responsibility to ensure this is the case. The Government has made significant changes to the planning process by reinstating a two-stage process that starts in the local authorities through the large-scale residential developments legislation. The strategic housing developments are no more. Th…

There are a number of reviews happening. I wish to refer also to the Attorney General's review of the planning code and a revised system for board appointments. That is really important. This is the most extensive review of the planning system, and we are working through it. I see that the Chairman of the joint committee, Deputy Matthews, is present. The committee will be involved. About five years' work is being done in nine months. With the support of the committee, I expect to bring a consolidated planning Bill …

All of that will be considered. The OPR review will be carried out as well. The OPR review is being conducted by Mr. Niall Cussen. We must not proceed in a piecemeal fashion but in a consolidated manner.

I need to let the senior counsel, Mr. Remy Farrell, start and conclude his work. That has not started yet. We do not know what the outcome will be, so I will not say anything further about what will happen with the report in the future; suffice it to say that the Government takes the situation very seriously. That is why it acted proactively. I welcome the Deputy's remarks in support of the process under way. We will publish the terms of reference in a matter of days.

I will take note of what the Deputy has said. We will come back to him in due course.

On Deputy Ó Broin’s supplementary question, we got Cabinet approval just this week in respect of proceeding with the fund. We are working through matters with the Directorate General for Competition in respect of state aid. There is a similar scheme in Sweden that was successful. What we have to do is notify that, which we are doing. I expect that we will launch it in the coming weeks. There will be a lead-in time, so I cannot give a figure for how much will be drawn down this year. The predominance of it will prob…

Obviously, there are two funds here. There is a fund to which the Government has committed €500 million between cities and towns. The Deputy is 100% correct. There are approximately 80,000 planning permissions that have not been activated, many of which are for high-density development or in city areas. The Croí Cónaithe cities fund will be focused at five cities, namely, Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford. I brought the proposal and memo to Cabinet on Tuesday and we got approval to move to the next stage…

I thank the Deputy for his question. I am anxious that all counties can participate in the affordable housing fund. They can do so should relevant schemes be brought forward. I asked all local authorities, including Mayo County Council, to prepare housing delivery action plans, which they have done. Each authority was asked to assess the level of housing demand with affordability constraint projected for their area using a common tool, namely, the housing need and demand assessment tool. Local authorities with a st…

In answer to the previous parliamentary question, the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, discussed the Croí Cónaithe towns and villages fund. We have to tackle the scourge of vacancy and dereliction and we are going to do so. That fund will come out very soon. As regards Mayo in particular, in June 2021 a scheme was submitted for 25 homes in Westport under the previous fund, namely, the serviced sites fund. We have told Mayo County Council that it can resubmit that to the new fund and I understand work is ongoing bet…

We are very serious about engaging with all local authorities. As I said already, where schemes can be brought forward, we want them. We have also issued a call on advance purchase for schemes that are currently being built or being built out and we have received six or seven proposals on that already, which will see homes delivered this year. In urban centres the LDA, through Project Tosaigh, will deliver hundreds more affordable purchase and cost rental units this year and quite a lot into 2023 too. Deputy Dillon…

That is all on affordable purchase through the local authorities. The regulations on affordable rental through cost rental have been laid as well. The final piece of work or the other leg to the stool relates to the first home shared equity and that work will conclude in the next few weeks. We will be publishing that and will have an extensive public information campaign on it because this Government supports home ownership. All three parties in the Government want to make sure that affordable housing is central to…

I thank Deputy O'Sullivan for his question and all Members for their interest in this issue. Deputy O'Sullivan has advocated for this very strongly and we all recognise the importance of the Government giving assistance to those who can bring vacant and empty homes in our towns and villages back into use. We are within weeks of launching that fund. It will be managed through our local authorities. The Ministers of State, Deputies Burke and Noonan, and I want to make sure the process is as simple as possible. It wil…

I assure Deputy O'Sullivan that we will make sure all of the relevant information is available. There will be a public information campaign on the scheme. There is a lot of interest among Government and Opposition Deputies in this fund. We will make sure all Deputies receive the relevant information. Local authorities will be managing the scheme. I am glad that Deputy O'Sullivan mentioned single people, a cohort of people who find the current housing situation acutely challenging. That is why we have made very sign…

Croí Conaithe will very much focus on empty buildings and vacant homes that exist right now and such premises will be in different states of disrepair. The other very serious issue, which will very much help Croí Cónaithe, is above-shop living. That has not been cracked yet in respect of the regulations. We have a group working on that, particularly on fire regulations and so on. It will conclude its work on that very shortly. We will not wait for that to be done to get Croí Cónaithe launched. There are vacant home…

As Deputy Boyd Barrett knows, HAP supports approximately 61,900 households in this country. We had a debate last night about rents and one matter that I was not able to put on the record then was the fact that the Government provides nearly €1 billion in direct rental support to families, and rightly so. Approximately €585 million goes to HAP. Sometimes that is forgotten and others try to paint it as some type of subsidy to the private landlord sector. It is not. The payments are supports that go to real families. …