The Minister's response is an incredibly disappointing and disingenuous one. The one point he made with which I agree is that he at least admitted the Government is not doing enough. We do not need the Minister to tell us that, because ordinary working families across the State know that. Nobody on these benches is telling the Government to do everything; we just want it to do more. The reason we ask the Government to do more is that every single day in our constituencies, as I am sure in the constituencies of the …

The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage published the monthly homeless figures on Friday. They showed another significant increase in the number of homeless adults, children and, in particular, families. Will the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage outline the actions he will take to reverse this clear trend since August of last year?

The difficulty with the Minister's response is it does not suggest that the Government will do anything different in the short to medium term to deal with the two specific problems causing this increase in family homelessness. First, we are seeing a significant exit of landlords from the market. The Minister is right about that. They are going and will not stay. They are availing of high market prices to cease being landlords. I have heard nothing from Government on what we do to prevent the families, particularly …

There are three measures the Minister could take as a matter of urgency. First, he could lift the effective prohibition on local authorities purchasing properties where HAP or RAS tenants are in situ and have been given notices to quit. The problem, as the Minister knows, from the circular is that the councils are asked to prioritise vacant one- and four-bed properties and properties with disability adaptations in order to try to get people trapped in emergency accommodation out. There is a limit of 200 acquisition…

Will the Minister confirm that none of the successful applicants for the second round of the cost rental equity loan, CREL, scheme involved projects in Dublin city centre? Will he outline what changes he is currently considering to ensure that this much-needed scheme is able to deliver homes in Dublin city centre and in the other areas in need of cost rental accommodation?

I have no objection to the use of turnkeys in the short term while a pipeline of development of affordable cost rental homes by AHBs and councils comes on stream. The difficulty, though, as the Minister is aware, is that the price of purchasing turnkey properties in Dublin city centre means it is not possible to deliver the affordable element of the cost-rental proposition. Therefore, I have a specific question. Is the Minister actively considering any amendments to the cost rental equity loan scheme that would pro…

With the greatest of respect Minister, any arrangement concerning management fees is not going to deal with the central problem now being experienced by Dublin City Council which, of course, is the cost of units that are acquired. Whether those turnkeys are developed from the ground up or are at any other stage of development, the cost is more than €400,000. As the Minister is aware, there has been some media commentary regarding correspondence between him and Bartra, in the context of the company seeking to charge…

Will that be this year or next year?

I am sure the Minister read in the newspapers two weeks ago that Orange Capital Partners have announced a forward purchase agreement of currently developed stock in three locations. These are in Cherrywood, in my constituency at Adamstown and in the Minister's constituency at Portmarnock. Many of these developments include not only apartments but also duplexes and family homes. Does the Minister accept that the measures undertaken by him and his colleague, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, to stop these ins…

That is no comfort to the people in Portmarnock in the Minister's constituency or in Adamstown in mine, who today will not be able to avail of any of these homes because they have been purchased by an institutional investor. In the same article in the Irish Independent , the fund said that "it is irrelevant what we pay for them." It does not matter that the Government has increased stamp duty by a modest 8%. These funds will make such a return at current market rents over the 50-year period that this fund, for exam…

The facts flatly contradict what the Minister is proposing because we know from the BNP Paribas report that a quarter of all purchases last year were by non-households. The Minister is right that some of those were approved housing bodies and local authorities but the vast bulk of them were institutional investors. They are now not just buying up new homes through forward purchase agreements but snapping up significant numbers of second-hand homes from which HAP and RAS tenants have been evicted and then leasing th…

By way of being helpful to the Deputy, I can inform him that the LDA has confirmed to the Oireachtas housing committee that none of its affordable purchase units will come on stream until 2024–2025, these being the first units at Shanganagh. I understand the Government envisages a pipeline for affordable purchase this year of just 400 units. My specific question for the Minister of State is on the regulations because, as we know, the regulations on affordable purchase through the affordable housing fund are very de…

Will they be for purchase?

I thank the Minister for the clarification.

As the Minister knows, his predecessor announced the St. Michael's social and affordable public housing scheme in 2018. We understand from Dublin City Council that it is to go to planning at the latter end of this year and that construction may not commence until 2025, which means that the project, given its size, might not be tenanted until 2027 or 2028. That means it will be ten years from announcement to tenanting. What is the Department doing to speed up the process after planning, particularly regarding change…

As the Minister will know, this is a project that has strong cross-party support. We worked together in opposition to convince the then Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy English, to progress this project. I am hoping that we can continue to do the same in the future. There are two specific problems. The question I have relates to the stage after planning is approved. The Minister's Department recently published the report into a review of the four-stage process, p…

I say this with all sincerity, but there is some scepticism as to whether the four-stage process will actually become a three-stage process. We will have to wait and see. The Department's report is very clear. It does not confirm the establishment of a single decision-maker. It states that it would be preferable, but there will be greater co-ordination. I invite the Minister to meet the Deputies involved with this issue and the relevant officials from the Department. Some of us may have helpful suggestions that cou…

As I am sure the Minister is aware, the Irish Green Building Council, IGBC, launched an important report last November on foot of research it commissioned from University College Dublin on how to deliver the increased number of homes and other construction projects that will be built in the future in a way that allows us to meet our legally binding emissions reduction targets. The report not only focuses on the operational emissions of those buildings and the energy standards, but also on the embodied carbon. Is th…

Among the significant findings of the UCD research commissioned by the Irish Green Building Council is that, first, the urban environment or the built environment is responsible for more than 30% of our current emissions, equal to areas such as agriculture or energy and transport which get much more public attention. Second, the research shows that, even with the retrofitting programme the Government is planning, as the operational emissions of the built environment reduces, the embodied carbon required to build ne…

I agree the Oireachtas committee would be a good place to advance this discussion. The Minister of State may wish to use his influence with the committee Chairman to assist in that regard. It would also be useful to hear at Oireachtas committee level what are the preparations of the Department for those legally binding targets that will have a profound impact on the work of the Department, as well as on the private sector. There will also be a role for legislation here. For example, a shift from high-carbon cement …