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

I will return quickly to the housing adaptation grants. Some 10,000 will be done this year but I cannot give the figure for funding for next year because it is part of budget negotiations. I apologise for that. It is not the case that I am trying to withhold the information but it is sensitive at the moment.

I will work backwards through Deputy Casey's questions. In 2040 we will have 1,000,000 more people and 550,000 new homes. The Land Development Agency will be a big part of that. There will be €11 billion in funding for 110,000 social housing homes. The Deputy knows all of those numbers. The population projections the county development plans have been based on since 2006 massively overstated the potential increase in population in terms of what will actually happen. We have done very detailed and consistent modelling on what we think the projections will be over the next 20 years but what we have done in terms of designing the strategies for each part of the country is to take what we think the likely population increase will be and to take the massively overstated 2006 figures and come to a midway point. We would use that midway point as a guide as we transition. We will review our population targets every time there is a census to make sure that changes are happening in line with what we expected. In 2021 we will be able to see if we are growing the way we thought we would or if we are growing more than we should be. The key thing about Project Ireland 2040 is to grow in the right places rather than just growing. If Wicklow can achieve the kind of growth that has been set for it in terms of it reaching its targets, that will be something we have not seen in Wicklow for quite a while. Our officials continue to engage with each local authority and with the regional assemblies to make sure people understand what we are trying to achieve here. It is different from before but we are putting in more than enough head room in case the increase in population is greater than anticipated in counties such as Wicklow.

On the four stages, if there are projects that have been ongoing for two to four years that are still at stage one or stage two then there is a problem with that project, not with the process. Otherwise it would have progressed. We have these checks and balances in place for a reason. They are not just sitting at a desk somewhere-----