Mr. Terry Dunne:

My area relates to Part V. If the Deputy would like to send in a written submission if she feels I have not addressed issues she raised in this regard, I would be happy to take it. We have increased the minimum number of houses in a development from five to ten because when the minimum number was five, under the 20% clause there was one of the houses taken out and because we have done away with the cash and site alternative meaning the options are reduced. That touches on the other issue raised by the Deputy regarding developers having greater negotiating skills than the local authority in this regard. We have reduced the options in terms of negotiation. The focus is on increasing the supply of housing because without private housing, there is no Part V benefit and we are back to where we were prior to 2000. With regard to the supply of units be they on site as a default option or another site if there is no demand where the development is taking place, the cash alternative is being taken away.

The scope in terms of having a mishmash as happened in the past where the developer would pay some cash and provide a house or land elsewhere is gone. Now it is about getting units and going back to the core of what Part V is about, which is providing social housing in mixed tenure developments and moving away from large social housing developments to social housing developments within private housing developments. It is the mixed tenure model, which is probably one of the greatest successes of it.

I note what the Deputy said about the affordability issue. I accept house prices are increasing. They have gone up again since the heads were published but there are other ways in which they can be addressed. In the social housing strategy, we are looking at approaches such as cost rental and so on. The approved housing bodies are expected to have a much greater role in housing supply under the strategy as well in terms of provision of social housing.