Ms Mary Hurley:

I will come back on the question one-beds because some of the other issues were covered. Deputy Ó Broin is right that a third of the list are single individuals. When the Departments set build targets for 2018 earlier this year it worked very closely with local authorities about the need for additional one-bed space because that is what is coming through on the list. There are not as many as the Department would like coming through but it has been working on a spec for layouts of social housing. We will be providing specs to local authorities to make it easier for them in terms of the one-bed units.

One thing we see when social housing homes are being built, or where apartments are being built, is that the cost of building a two-bed, as opposed to a one-bed, can be very small and local authorities can focus on the cost piece. That is something we are looking at. We are encouraging more one-bed apartments. Dublin County Council has a volumetric framework in place for the delivery of apartments and a big focus of that will be on one-bed units. The Deputy is absolutely right that they are very important.

We will see next year as we move into the target-setting process for 2019 in terms of build across the local authorities, and we have the social housing assessments list from last June, more of a focus again on the delivery of one-bed units. We will have our framework and layout specs in place and the Department will be encouraging the building of one-bed units. They are critical to Housing First, whose national director, Bob Jordan, is in the Gallery. The Department is working very closely with Mr. Jordan on those one-bed units, including in terms of acquisitions where we are acquiring in the market, particularly some of the vacant units the housing agency has been securing. We are also targeting one-bed units there.