Mr. Michael Cleary:

The Chair referenced the Land Development Agency and the need to ensure the best use of public lands and deliver the correct type of units. Wearing the planning hat, as a planning and development surveyor, it is important to make sure that we have all the relevant information. In an earlier answer, I referred to obsolescence and the work required to quantify the number of obsolescent housing units and understand the actual number of units that need to be replaced, discounting the surges in demand that occur. That work could be given to an entity such as the Land Development Agency or at least made part of someone's work stream.

The types of housing units to be delivered are also a consideration. There are regional residential units and also residential units in the larger urban areas. There has to be an assessment of what the need is now and going forward in terms of housing for older people. We also hope that some of the employment opportunities in the IT sector will move to the regions rather than just Dublin. Within that there should be an assessment of the types of housing these workers require. We are involved in a number of development schemes for high-tech entities that are expanding here. It is interesting that they bring people from their place of origin to advise them on the types of units they require and also the short-term nature of some of the units required. Perhaps this is an urban phenomenon, but we have to figure out a way of delivering that, while addressing the high cost issues to which Ms Myler has referred.

The influence of technology in the sector and long-term requirements for energy efficiency are other issues to be addressed. We are attempting to get the suggestions in this area across the line by 2040. The ideal scenario, from a planning and development perspective, is that someone will take the 2040 plan - perhaps the Land Development Agency or its equivalent - and employs a variety of work streams which would allow it to generate robust and important statistical information and apply the findings to assist in implementing the plan where information has to be provided. Various sites also have to be targeted. From the planning and development perspective, I have been in front of many local authorities to discuss their role in the planning process, which involves zoning and managing the process. Sometimes when we approach the local authorities with specific sites we are told they never anticipated that the site would be used for development. This is particularly the case in terms of the ownership of public utilities, ports, hospitals and other areas. We tell them there is a way to make such sites useable and set out how it could be done. The Land Development Agency will become much more important in this area because brownfield site delivery, once we get over the current issues, will be the next challenge. There is only a certain level of building we can do. We cannot keep going beyond the existing boundary lines of our properties. The cost of delivery in the Netherlands and other places was mentioned earlier. It is easier to make something of a site is it close to public transport nodes. That issue ties back in so that there is a joined up approach covering planning and development. That issue must be prioritised and must not be lost in the immediate discussion of the physical delivery of units.