Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

My questions will deal specifically with the Secretary General's opening statement. Before that, in my earlier remarks I referred to the meeting of 7 December last. I accept the Secretary General's response. I have no problem with it and I am glad he explained it.

Mr. McCarthy stated with regard to pillar 2: "While the final detailed figures for social housing output will be collated and published over the coming weeks, provisional figures for 2016 indicate that in excess of 18,300 households have had their social housing needs met under the range of social housing schemes, ahead of the target...". There are 31 local authorities in the country. It would be helpful for us to have the figures for 2016 when they are finally collated. These are the hard facts we must deal with and the figures are evidence based. Perhaps Mr. McCarthy would do that.

Mr. McCarthy also mentioned, and Senator Coffey raised this issue, that "On the infrastructure front, 21 local authorities have applied for funding under the €200 million local infrastructure housing activation fund, LIHAF, ..." and he went on to outline the information on that. We also heard from Mr. Walsh that 74 projects were involved. Senator Coffey's question was not answered. What 21 of the 31 local authorities are involved? Can we have details on that? This is the type of detail that local councillors will contact us about when they are seeking to find out the position, because they hear various things. We must make more facts available. There are 31 councils in the country and 21 were involved, so perhaps we could have those facts.

Mr. Walsh made a good and important point about the cost-benefit analysis of this. I have no problem with, or ideological hang ups about, private developers but we are talking about private developers seeking this money. They talk about it publicly and we know private developers in our constituencies who are seeking this money. However, we must be careful about using public funds to assist and support private development over and above local authority or co-operative development. It is an important issue. There is a major strategic development zone, SDZ, in south County Dublin that may or may not seek some of this money. We must be careful. It would be wholly appropriate that a full cost-benefit analysis be carried out in this regard because this is public money and we have a public housing list and social obligations. Perhaps the Secretary General would provide us with the list of 21 local authorities involved.

Regarding the Secretary General's progress report that accompanied the papers we received today, pillar 3 refers to building more homes. One of the actions behind schedule is No. 3.8: "We will develop and publish an implementation plan to prioritise implementation of key recommendations within the An Bord Pleanála review". The An Bord Pleanála review has been completed. Can the Secretary General explain the delay? If something is behind schedule, there should be another column to explain how it will be brought back on schedule. Will this be dealt with fully in the next quarter?

Finally, with regard to pillar 4, there is another action, No. 4.6, behind schedule. It states: "We will introduce a new affordable rental scheme to enhance the capacity of the private rented sector to provide quality and affordable accommodation for households currently paying a disproportionate amount of disposable income on rent." That is one of the key issues debated in the legislation, but again it is behind schedule. Will the Secretary General give the reasons for it being behind schedule and, more importantly, explain how he will get it back on schedule? If this committee is to be successful in terms of scrutiny, we must work together. This is not a case of any of us being against each other. I echo the point Deputy Cowen made in that I, too, would be delighted if this could be delivered. This is the Government's policy. It is being funded and supported by the Oireachtas, so there is great consensus on it being delivered. We wish to be helpful on these matters, so perhaps the Secretary General will elaborate on the questions I raised.