Mr. John McCarthy:

On the question regarding the housing assistance payment, HAP, in terms of value for money there are rent limits in place for each local authority area and there is discretion to go beyond those rent limits and these provide an important benchmark against which progress can be measured. As part of the annual budgetary process, all Departments work with the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service, IGEES, which is based in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, to identify a number of programmes for review. The HAP scheme was the subject of one of those exercises last year, which concluded that the rents being paid were below average price levels in the market. While it was concluded that we needed to keep rent limits under review, there are no plans at this stage to change them.

On construction projects, I made the point earlier to Deputy Burke that one of the most important mechanisms that we put in place to try to manage the cost of social housing construction projects is the four-stage approval process. It allows us to move to the tender process, that is, from stage 3 into stage 4, with as good an understanding as possible of a site such that we have a realistic budgeted cost for the project. Under the new contract arrangements that are in place, such projects are not affected by inflation. Obviously, if exceptions arise - and they do - those need to be taken into account. As the construction programme is still at an early stage of ramping back up, there is only a limited sample available for review in terms of projects that have completed. To the extent that we have done so, on average approximately 3% to 4% have gone beyond the agreed budget.

On staffing, I am always loath to use the word "circumvent" when before the Committee of Public Accounts. Local authorities can choose to take on staff directly or, in some cases, to take on professional expertise through contractual arrangements. In many cases, it is a mixture of both. They can bring in people on temporary contracts but they must do so through a recruitment process. Since 2015, the Department has approved more than 700 staffing requests for local authorities, specifically in the housing-related area. Yesterday, we issued the local authorities with a circular on how they can avail of supports through the capital programme to cover some of the staff costs associated with building projects, whether those costs are for contracted expertise in terms of a private firm or for staff they take on, permanently or on contract. As I said, we leave judgment in this regard to the local authorities.