Absolutely. We are working through the process for retrospective payments as well. I gave a commitment when I entered government to address this issue. The three parties of the Government gave a firm commitment to address this issue. Residents' response to our announcements on the works so far have been very positive. I will continue to work with them and all interested Members of the House to ensure the scheme continues to make the progress made already.

Supporting individuals and families facing homelessness is an absolute priority for me as Minister and the rest of the Government. Critical to supporting households to exit homelessness is increasing the supply of housing. Last year, almost 12,000 new social homes were delivered through build, acquisition and leasing, including 8,110 new-build homes, representing the highest level of new-build social homes in nearly 50 years. Including HAP and RAS, 21,733 social housing solutions were delivered throughout 2023. Rec…

Deputy Ó Broin and every Member of this House knows that the reasons people enter homelessness are very complex. People enter homeless emergency accommodation for a variety of reasons. One of the main preventive measures the Government introduced that is working is the purchase of homes for tenants in situ . So too is the increased supply of social housing stock. People are spending less time in emergency accommodation and exiting emergency accommodation quicker than ever before. I will give exact statistics with r…

Certainly not.

There is no restriction on the tenants in situ scheme. I wrote to the local authorities-----

Excuse me, do not interrupt me. On 5 July, I wrote to every chief executive across the country stating the targets set for them were the floor, not the ceiling. We exceeded our target last year. I expect us to do that again this year. The Deputy raised this last year as well. He said there were arbitrary targets and ceilings set regarding tenants in situ . There are not. It is a very good preventative measure. Actually, if quarter 1 of 2023 is compared to the same quarter of this year, adult exits from emergency ac…

It is complex and, by the way, it is not the fault of the people in emergency accommodation. No one suggested that except Deputy Ó Broin.

I thank the Deputy. It is a very important issue. As the Deputy is aware I commenced the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Act 2022 on 22 June 2023. This was a greatly enhanced scheme where we upped the cap from €247,000 to €420,000. We adopted those regulations for that scheme on 29 June 2023. A review mechanism was included in that Act which provides for an increase or decrease to the overall grant scheme cap. It is currently at €420,000, a year after the Act has commenced. …

I thank the Deputy. The scheme is gaining hold in the affected counties as well. We are seeing more people applying to it. I am looking at recent numbers up to 31 August. In County Clare there have been 112 applications, 1,760 in County Donegal, 38 in County Limerick and 392 in County Mayo. I will be bringing proposals around increased costs and an increased cap as well to Cabinet very shortly. It is obviously subject to a Cabinet decision. I take the Deputy's input on board certainly in the constructive way in whi…

All I can say is, Deputy, it is subject to my bringing the memo to Cabinet, which is being prepared at the moment, with options for Cabinet to decide upon. I can say to residents and affected homeowners that they will see an increase in the cap. They will see an increase in the allowable costs, the application of which and the approval of those is subject to Cabinet approval which I expect in the coming weeks, very shortly. I take on board the point raised by the Deputy and that will form part of our considerations…

I thank Deputy O'Sullivan. Deputy Devlin tabled the question and I thank Deputy O'Sullivan for standing in in his stead. An Bord Pleanála, as the Deputy knows, is the national independent statutory body with responsibility for the determination of planning appeals and direct applications for strategic infrastructure and other developments under the Planning and Development Act 2000 and certain other acts. Section 104 of the Planning and Development Act as amended provides for the temporary increase in the maximum n…

We can extend it past the date, should we wish. In the intervening period, I expect all permanent board members to be appointed at that stage. This is a transition period. The board is working through parallel meetings at the moment to deal with the backlog. There is a focus on residential development. An Bord Pleanála worked over a number of weeks in the summer to specifically look at backlog cases for individual houses or extensions to clear them, because right now everything is taken in chronological order. It i…

As of August 2024, An Bord Pleanála had disposed of 2,439 cases. That was an increase of 39% from the cases disposed of. Compared to August 2023, there has been nearly a 40% increase in the number of cases disposed of so we are seeing that increase. Deputy O'Sullivan supported legislation that I brought in regarding the large-scale residential development arrangements, which came into effect on 17 December 2021. The legislation did not receive support from all sides of the House at the time, but it has really worke…

I thank the Deputy. The national planning framework, NPF, published in 2018, sets out a vision and strategy for the spatial development of Ireland to 2040. National policy objective 44 of the NPF specifically commits to further supporting and developing the economic potential of the Dublin-Belfast corridor, in particular the core Drogheda-Dundalk-Newry network, and to promote and enhance its international visibility in co-operation with the relevant departments in Northern Ireland. The draft revised NPF published o…

Specifically on Fingal and Balbriggan, we can look at what our Department has done with funding under the urban regeneration and development fund, URDF. We will use Balbriggan again as an example of very significant investment to improve the public realm, purchase vacant properties, open up Dublin Street, the quay, the harbour and all of that, and that work has been transformative. We want to support, and we are supporting, those smaller indigenous business. The NPF is really important on the basis that it will dri…

Fingal is a major employment zone too. Taking the airport as an example, 25,000 people are directly employed on-campus, with about 120,000 indirect jobs in that area. That is how important the airport industrial and economic zone is. Certainly, regarding remote working, specifically for Fingal, last year the local government division of my Department last year allocated €150,000 in funding for a Fingal County Council project relating to sectoral enterprise hubs in this exact area that we are discussing. There are l…

Which ones?

The principle of the purchase of homes of tenants in situ is one that everybody in the House supports.

Last year, we bought 1,830 homes. The original target had been 200. It was reset to 1,500 and we increased it further. Deputy Troy, the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, and I met the chief executive of Westmeath County Council yesterday. For clarification, so that everyone is clear on this, there is no ceiling on the number of homes a local authority can purchase under the scheme this year. We have the capital in place to support that. I want to be clear on that. I met the local authorities and wrote to them …

Yes.