Ms Mary Egan:

I agree with my colleague from South Dublin County Council on Part V delivery. In general in Fingal, we find we are getting delivery of Part V units upfront by developers. As Ms Farrelly mentioned, the bigger the sites and the more sites we have, the more opportunities we have for that.

Regarding taking the land ourselves, we have similar difficulties to South Dublin County Council with the procurement issue and bringing it on for development. In Fingal we do not have a difficulty with the early delivery of Part V units. From 2015 up to the end of this year, we will have delivered approximately 300 units through the Part V process. With the planning permissions and the active sites throughout the county, we would have another 1,000 to 1,200 Part V units being delivered as those planning permissions are worked through. With regard to Part V, taking the land would not be beneficial in Fingal.

The Chairman asked about downsizing and older people. In Fingal we are working through a number of older persons accommodation schemes at the moment.

We are hoping to bring those forward through the Part 8 process in the coming year. We are working closely with the approved housing bodies, particularly those which specialise in that type of delivery. We are encouraging people in larger local authority housing to downsize, if and where possible, to those homes. The main incentive would be that people would be moving to a new property which would be much more efficient in which to live. We work proactively with all of the approved housing bodies across the spectrum, especially the main tier 3 approved housing bodies. Several of our sites have been given to them. We have one about to start in December in Mulhuddart with Clúid Housing which will provide 164 units. We are working with Túath Housing on two other significant sites in the county.

We are also working with them on bringing cost rental into our schemes. Again, we have to wait for the experience from the pilot schemes which are under way.