Mr. Colm Ward:

On the question of the powers and resources of the Land Development Agency, we need to work through the detail of what that will involve. We can then see how we can work in tandem with it. We are completely open to working in parallel or jointly to free up land and sites.

Regarding the resources we have, the Kilcarbery site was a high-level project across the local authority. It was not a dedicated team. We pulled in the outside expertise as we needed it. We have a significant number of staff both in the housing department and architectural services working on all our projects. We have resourcing through our workforce plan.

On the different sites and the different solutions, we will bring proposals for the building of approximately 2,000 homes at Clonburris which will in the main be affordable and social housing. The fact it is in the wider context of a strategic development zone means it will provide for 6,000 private homes. We are focusing on the social and affordable element of that. In some of the other sites we have we will need to look to include private ownership, particularly in areas such as Killinarden which already has a lot of social housing. Different sites will require different solutions.

On affordability, the new affordable housing scheme will be at the forefront of our minds. We progressed the Kilcarbery project in the absence of that. We were quite open all along that we had to work within the constraints of policy. That will follow on in terms of a cost rental scheme. We are waiting for the detail of a cost rental scheme. There are all sorts of views on what that will entail, how we future-proof it, and the length of time involved.

We are actively working with developers and we are trying to front-load some of the Part V units. If we get land, we have to go through the process of Part VIII and developing that ourselves. I am speaking about South Dublin and I know the Deputy referred to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown. Ideally in a development, we would work to get the units front-loaded. There are certain examples of that, such as Shackleton Park, where we would be working to get units upfront. That is to the fore of our concerns in that regard.

I have identified 7,055 on our housing list. I do not have the average waiting time for a home. There are additional numbers on the transfer list and on the housing assistance payment list. If people are accommodated on social housing, it frees up other options for people who do not have those options. We work with approved housing bodies, AHBs, consistently and we would aim to have about 400 units from AHBs in the next couple of years. We would also envisage 500 units in the timeframe to 2021. On top of the 800 units, we are delivering through our own smaller build programmes within local authority areas along with green space and open space that we have, supplemented by the large sites. We are actively working on a significant supply pipeline to deliver homes throughout the county.