Mr. John McCarthy:

I thank the Deputy. As it stands, there are 15 sites, involving just over 25 ha and 479 units of accommodation, at various stages in our construction pipeline. At another four sites, involving 3.95 ha and approximately 180 units, projects are at an earlier stage of consideration and have not entered the pipeline. A small number of pieces of other land have been used for education and other purposes. I will try to put this into context for the Deputy. This scheme was introduced for the very valid purpose of recognising the difficulties faced by local authorities in the aftermath of the economic collapse. Now that 73 sites have been transferred into the scheme, and with two land transfers still to be formally effected, the focus has switched from the acceptance of sites to the management and utilisation of sites. The Housing Agency has been tasked under Rebuilding Ireland with the production of a site management plan for each site, apart from the sites to which I have referred, in conjunction with the relevant local authorities. Our objective is to try to bring as many as possible of these sites into active use as early as we can. We intend to use the additional funding that is now available under Rebuilding Ireland. I hope the number of these sites being used will increase quickly over the coming years.