Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair. I will just pick up on two points she raised a high level. The Rebuilding Ireland programme was launched in 2016 and is all about delivery. It cannot just be published and put on a shelf. It is not a document but a tool that must be delivered. We have to keep a constant laser-like focus on delivery. Where delivery is not happening or needs to be sped up or where something needs to be tweaked we take action.

The second point, speaking at a high level, is that a balance needs to be struck. We have different layers of government in this country. We have local authorities and national government and I have to try to find a balance with local authorities when exercising my powers. For example, when the previous Minister moved on the idea of the fast-track planning process we had to take powers away from local authorities do that. However, that was done in the national interest thinking about the bigger picture. These were large schemes and we have a housing shortage and an undersupply. As we move to do things we must be careful to ensure we always strike that balance because democracy works best when it is closest to the people. We do not want to centralise too much in Government or in the Department. At the same time, we have to recognise that local authorities are sometimes limited in what they are able to do.

In the case of the planning process, we do not want any unnecessary delays. We have put the fast-track planning process in place and I have appointed additional members to the board to make sure there are no unnecessary delays. However, we must also be careful because this country is dogged by a history of bad planning decisions. Planning is an issue we have not got right for decades, which is the reason Dublin is the way it is. The city was not designed but just kind of happened and happened in the wrong way. It is why some fantastic buildings which should never have been knocked down were demolished. We have to be mindful of the existing built heritage. We also have to take cognisance of the fact that we have a crisis. Again, there is a balance to be struck in the area of planning.

On delivery in local authority areas, I made it clear to local authorities at the housing summit in January that they could fund new staff for delivery and the Department would take on the financial burden. Since 2015 more than 700 staff - I put the exact number on the record yesterday evening - were approved to be allocated to housing roles. We also have to recognise from where we were coming as many staff had been lost. There is still more to do in that area in terms of more resources. That is a significant number, however, and as we interact with each local authority, which we are doing through the housing unit, when we think that an additional person might be able to deliver a site with 50 homes or get something done through the repair and lease scheme, as has happened in certain local authorities, that person should be contracted in. My officials met representatives of the County and City Management Association, CCMA, today about putting those positions in place. We will get a more detailed report on what exactly the local authorities have done at the June summit.

One will try to assist the local authority in that regard, referring to the Department and to delivery. If it has not done anything six months later, however, one has to readdress the question as to where the balance is and consider taking responsibility from the local authority and putting in our own teams. We are considering that in respect of a couple of local authorities.

With regard to Shanganagh, circumstances on sites can be very frustrating. I have been to sites in probably every local authority area that have been sitting idle for years, for various reasons. Various problems might have been found on the sites. Obviously, there were difficult years when coming out of the crisis but we now have an opportunity to get moving because the funding is available. We do not want to see any unnecessary delays. The unit is in place to make sure that, where there is a knot between the Department and the local authority, it can be untied very quickly without delay.