I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to amend the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1992 so the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage may introduce regulations for landlords to prove their compliance with minimum standards and fire safety standards before a property can be rented. Three years ago, this month, "RTÉ Investigates" broadcast "Nightmare to Let", which was a damning indictment of some of the worst standards in the private rental sector that many of us have …

I move: "That the Bill be taken in Private Members' time."

Will the Minister indicate when he intends to publish the quarter 3 social housing pipeline output report? Will he also share any information he has on the level of recovery in commencements and completions since the second quarter report earlier this year?

No one in the Opposition thought output would not be dramatically affected, if somewhat temporarily, by the impact of Covid-19 on construction. Many of us were surprised at the size of the impact. The Minister will know, from the quarter 2 report, that only 9% of new builds had been delivered on track and that figure increases to 12% when one adds new builds and acquisitions. I do not cite those figures to criticise the Department because, in fairness, it was quick to ensure social housing construction sites opened…

The Minister should not always assume that my comments on an issue amount to criticism.

No. As I said, this is one occasion where I was not criticising.

If we reach 70% of the target, it would be very good and I would welcome that. However, I am concerned that Covid is not solely responsible for the lag and the value-for-money exercise is also responsible. I ask the Minister to examine that issue with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. Will he add the 30% that may not be delivered this year to the 2021 target to ensure the net position by the end of 2021 will be the same as it would otherwise have been under the Rebuilding Ireland targets?

As the House knows, the revised general scheme of the Land Development Agency Bill 2020 has been published. It is a significantly longer text than the one the Minister and I scrutinised at the previous housing committee. There are a lot of significant changes but also some worrying carry-over from the original draft. Maybe the Minister could give the House an overview of some of what he sees as the significant changes in the new general scheme.

I thank the Minister for his reply. One of the concerns both he and I had last year was that by using the designated activity companies model for the residential developments, those activities would not be subject to FOI and the lobbying register. That is obviously still the case where the LDA uses its subsidiaries as the Minister has outlined. There is of course also a concern that the definition of "affordable housing" in the new general scheme is simply a discount on prevailing market prices in that location, wh…

The Minister is aware that the housing committee has written to him wanting to know if pre-legislative scrutiny on the general scheme is possible in view of the fact that most of the committee members are new. It would be helpful if he would give the committee an indication of whether he is willing to do that or not. The committee would of course expedite such a request. I am very concerned, however, because the issue of FOI and the lobbying register remains as problematic today as it was before. The issue of lack …

As the Minister knows, a substantial majority of Dublin City Council members rejected the proposal of their management to transfer land on Oscar Traynor Road to a private developer as part of the scheme there. I understand the Lord Mayor of Dublin has written to the Minister. This is an opportunity for us to work together and not be adversarial but to try to put in place a better funding package and a better scheme. I am interested in his thoughts on how best to proceed on this site.

I welcome the Minister's response. He will recall that he worked alongside others in opposition and the then Minister of State, Deputy Damien English, to successfully remove St. Michael's Estate from the land initiative into a much more sustainable public housing funding model that is currently working its way through. That is what we need to do in this instance. The vast majority of councillors who opposed the transfer of land are not opposed to the residential development on that site. In fact, the local communit…

The haste the Minister speaks about is, again, something we would welcome and we will work with him on this. We cannot have strategic sites such as this being used, for example, for so-called affordable housing that costs the purchaser between €325,000 for a one-bed up to €380,000 for a three-bed. We cannot have valuable public land like this being used to sell open market, unaffordable housing for between €400,000 and €420,000. I welcome the fact the Minister has given a very clear commitment over a number of mont…

The Government does not fund them.

It does not control the purse strings. The Government controls the purse strings.

One application as a result of that big change-----

Fund the Oscar Traynor Road development. That is what the Minister could do.

The Minister will be aware that I have raised this issue previously and I fully accept the seriousness with which he has been responding to it but since we last raised it, we have seen a number of very significant tragic deaths of people who were either rough sleeping or engaging the homeless services in Dublin, Galway and Cork. I have heard some very concerning figures, particularly from Galway and Cork, in the past number of months. Can the Minister update the House on his discussions with the homeless service pr…

I welcome the study because we have to have an informed and evidence-based approach to this. In many cases what we are seeing is the overlap of three sets of issues - homelessness, mental health and addiction - and the lack of adequate provision of those three services at the right time and place to meet the needs of individuals,which in many cases, unfortunately, puts them at greater risk of tragic and unnecessary death. I have argued previously that we need to increase supports for mental health and addiction ser…

I again acknowledge the fact that the programme for Government has a commitment to increase this provision. The original Housing First strategy introduced by the previous Government only committed to approximately 600 Housing First tenancies up to next year. We need in the region of 3,000 to deal with the current number of individuals who need that particular support and that is where we need to get to. I press the point that it is not about categorising; it is about being evidence-based. We are talking about peopl…