The legislation will be detailed and we need legislation to underpin this scheme. We have worked collaboratively on this. The Housing Agency is the lead agency on this and it has extensive experience in that regard. The legislation will be published next year and with the co-operation of Members across the House we can work together to get that through as expeditiously as possible. This scheme will be with us for a number of years so we need to get the legislation right and correct. That is not holding back the imp…

The Housing Agency will be central to that scheme.

It will manage the scheme and we will work through that. Our focus, as my direct engagement with residents has been, is to get the interim scheme set up and I want to get that done and open for applications by the end of this month.

I thank Deputy O'Callaghan for his question. Since the publication of Housing for All, the Government has focused on the activation of permissions, which we are seeing happen now. I will go through that in some more detail. The residential zoned land tax is a new tax, introduced in the Finance Act 2021, which seeks to increase housing supply by encouraging the activation of land which is suitably zoned and appropriately serviced. Draft maps were published by local authorities on 1 November 2022, supplemental maps w…

What is happening on the ground can be seen across the country, including in Deputy O'Callaghan's constituency in Dublin. We have not seen anything like the number of homes and apartments under development since 2007. Progress is being made. The residential zoned land tax is a big change in how we manage land and how we will deal with reducing speculation on land and people hoarding land. It is already having an effect in advance of it coming in. Lands have been sold back into the market by agencies and we need tha…

No one is delaying it. One has to get it right. This is a really-----

This is really extensive work.

Across every single local authority, all maps were published. We had to allow the public to make submissions if they wanted to request a dezoning of land too, where land was zoned residential, they had no intention of developing it and did not want to develop it. We had to engage with all relevant stakeholders to allow that public information campaign and for public consultation to happen. One has to have a fair approach to this. I can tell Deputy O'Callaghan that, with the residential zoned land tax coming in from…

In line with programme for government commitments I established the Housing Commission in December 2021 as an independent body to examine and evaluate Ireland's housing system, including issues such as tenure standards, sustainability, quality-of-life issues and the provision of housing. At the same time, I also tasked the commission to advise the Government on the critical factors to be considered regarding a referendum on housing and, if appropriate, to recommend a wording for a constitutional change. While not a…

I understand the point Deputy Ó Broin has made. First I must get a decision from the Government based on the recommendations that I will bring forward as to what the next steps are. I know the committee has engaged on this and it is important that the committee views the report. I do not believe that should take a great length of time either but the committee needs to consider what is in it. The next step is that I will bring it to Cabinet with my recommendations once I have finished reviewing it. Included in my re…

I thank Deputy Ó Broin. If a minority report comes forward that is fine. It is a good thing and it shows that people are taking the matter seriously. The commissioners are drawn from all different walks of life and perspectives. It is a small number of members and the vast majority are in agreement with the report as it is. I want to be clear that I have had no information on any type of attempt to influence the commission. I absolutely doubt this has happened. No one has said it to me. The Taoiseach has been very …

Sinn Féin could have allocated money to it in its alternative budget.

There has been a Pauline conversion concerning this scheme, which they have consistently opposed.

Hear, hear.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 91, 99 and 124 together. Last year, we exceeded our housing delivery targets and we will exceed them again this year. We will deliver more new social homes this year than we did last year and will continue to break records with the largest social housing provision in 50 years. We will build substantially more affordable homes than last year and we have more first-time buyers, as the Deputy knows, buying homes than since 2007 with the support of this Government through things like th…

It is also opposed to the Croí Cónaithe scheme. What the Deputies opposite want to do is CPO those properties and send them back in as some type of affordable home.

They are opposed to it. They have actually brought motions forward in the House that have detailed their opposition to it. Let us be straight about it.

I am glad Deputy Ó Broin has converted.

To answer Deputy Murnane O'Connor's question, to the end of September of this year, 289 new homes commenced in Carlow. This is an increase of 26% on the same period in 2022 and the highest number of commencements in Carlow for this period since the data series began in 2014. With three months of the year still remaining, commencements so far this year already exceed the second highest number for Carlow since 2014. This will be a record-breaking year for the Deputy's county of Carlow. Similar progress is being made …

There is no question that progress is being made right across the country in every local authority area, in all 26 counties of the Republic. We are acutely aware that we need to do a lot more but there has been a step change in housing delivery under this Government. About 40% to 50% of the homes that will be delivered this year will be backed by this Government, be they social or affordable homes or assisted through the help to buy grant. The State is leading by example here. Looking at the numbers, 31,500 homes h…