Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and his officials for coming before the committee and acknowledge the very constructive engagement we have had with them in the committee and outside it. That is worth saying. I want to stay focused on the questions because our time is limited. The Minister might give us some detail on the local infrastructure housing activation fund, LIHAF. There is much controversy surrounding the affordability aspect of LIHAF. I appreciate there are sensitivities around this, but I want the Minister to comment particularly on the following if he can.

Regarding Cherrywood, we see that an application came in yesterday. There is some suggestion that all of that housing will be built to rent so one could say we might have an affordable rent scheme in Cherrywood. There is affordability. Huge amounts of public funds are being committed under the local infrastructure housing activation fund, LIHAF. We have got to get commitments, and we have got to deliver in that regard. The Minister says that 80% of them are fine tuned and ready to go, but there has to be transparency. That is the key word. People want to know if taxpayers' money is assisting the private sector - and I have no problem with the private sector - which will capitalise and make a lot of money on it. I accept it may provide some housing but people need to know what is happening. I have referenced Cherrywood in particular so I ask the Minister to respond to that.

The Minister issued a call to local authorities in August in terms of the capital assistance scheme, CAS. That is not that long ago but I would be interested to know if he has had feedback on that.

The Minister mentioned data sets. The big problem with Rebuilding Ireland and monitoring the policy here and generally around the country is a uniform data set. Every agency and every person speaking in the media has different sets. We need to tidy up that. That is an important focus so that in terms of data we know what we are dealing with in real terms. The Minister might also comment on that.

Regarding use of the social housing construction projects status report, we need one. I am not suggesting we could have it today, but we need to be updated on that.

Regarding a complete inventory of all council lands, it has been brought to my attention on numerous occasions, and I have direct experience of it in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, that the local government audit service, which operates within the Minister's Department, has identified local authorities failing to comply fully with the requirements to log, register and carry out a detailed inventory. Some of this is about literally transferring data from paper to some sort of system but this has gone on for four, five and six years, which raises an issue. It is not happening and local chief executives are saying they have no funds to do it. That is not a good enough reason. The auditors are on record. It is on the Department's website, which I looked at again this morning to see that they have identified failure to comply cases in 2014, 2015 to 2016. No action has been happening on this. How can the Minister complete his detailed information if he cannot find that out?

On the indemnity scheme in respect of the agreement on residential institutions, it was identified that substantial lands would be made available. Has the Minister done anything on that?

I refer to the targets set by the Minister's Department regarding local authorities. If they fail to reach those targets, what sanctions will he take against them?