Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On mixed-tenure provision, the reality is that it will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis in terms of how we can best use the strategic asset of land banks in different circumstances. Sometimes it will be a straight sale which can raise money to buy other land, as the Deputy said, and sometimes it will be to deliver and finance significant potential numbers of social housing units. It will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis, working it out with the local authorities, and we will do it in a way that gets value for money.

With regard to direct provision and the 400 families that were mentioned, we will certainly have 2,000 refugees coming into Ireland in the next 12 months and within the next two years I suspect that figure will be 4,000 plus their families, which probably will increase the total to nearly 12,000 people. Obviously we will need to accommodate those people, and they are very much part of the plans. Most of them will probably be accommodated through the HAP scheme, but there will also be other accommodation solutions. When they come into the country initially they will need orientation and so on, which is what is recommended. I take the point regarding the people who have been in direct provision for a long time and the need to work with the Department of Justice and Equality to make sure we provide more sustainable housing solutions for them.

With regard to Deputy O'Dowd's point, one of the commitments in the plan is that we try to move all local authorities to what is called a choice-based letting system. It is a little like having a small version of daft.iewithin a local authority, which would enable all the people who are looking and waiting for houses to see what is available. As houses become available, they are put up on the system and one bids for them. Depending on where one is on the list, the person who is highest on the list will get the property. The advantage of that can be seen if we note the experience in Cork City Council, where the refusal rate was about 48% because people were being offered houses on the basis of where they were on the list as opposed to matching up their exact need with houses and so on. Since the introduction of choice-based letting, that refusal rate has halved.