Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Can the witnesses tell me how many people have joined the housing list over the past three years? What figures are available for same? How many new applications for housing have been made nationally? What is the pace of the new applications? Such information has not been taken into account. Anecdotally, in Dún Laoghaire, I can say that there are more applications than planned houses. That means the list of 5,000 will be longer, even with the current plans, than it is now at the end of the next year or the year after. Is the Department tracking the amount of new applications? If so, how will they impact on the list and plans to deal with the housing crisis?

Do the witnesses know how many people on average have been knocked off the list over the same period because they exceeded the eligibility criteria? Unfortunately, people have been knocked off the list due to receiving a small pay rise, working a few extra hours or whatever even though they still have absolutely no chance of getting a mortgage from a bank. What provisions have been made for them?

Can the witnesses tell us anything about LIHAF funding? How much will we get back in affordable housing? What is the latest thinking on defining affordable housing? At the end of last year the Minister issued a circular saying that the €300,000 limit must be varied because the market figures are much higher. That means affordable housing will mean more than €300,000. A huge number of people cannot afford to pay €300,000 for a home. Therefore, going above the sum of €300,000 makes the words "affordable housing" meaningless. What proportion of money will we get back for LIHAF funding? We understand in Dún Laoghaire that for €15 million LIHAF funding for Cherrywood we will get 1% of the Cherrywood development. It is shocking if that is true.

Does the Department plan to engage with NAMA given the current discussions and the Taoiseach stating that using NAMA's assets and capacities is long overdue? Has the Government engaged with NAMA about the remainder of the NAMA properties and landbanks?