Mr. Joe McGuinness:

On behalf of Louth County Council, I will address the Deputy's questions. In regard to target versus need, the Louth target for 2018 is for 308 units, with a three-year target of 1,147. We will be close to the 2018 target and I am confident that we will exceed the three-year target. That target is largely being delivered through AHB-CALF funded units which are produced in significant numbers in Louth, largely due to the rent levels that can be achieved because the rental market is strong so close to Dublin. That is probably the reason for the success of the CALF scheme.

In regard to the specific question on target versus need, if members refer back to the 1980s, which was seen as the most buoyant time for local authority construction, we were probably constructing in region of 250 units whereas our target now is 308. While we feel our target is challenging, we will be close to it. There will always be housing need and there always was – that is a fact of life. It is a matter of catching up with what has happened in recent years.

On whether we think there is a need for affordable housing, there are two elements. First, the market is not yet supporting affordable housing, and market price and construction price have not yet matched. The availability of construction labour is heavily influencing the price of construction, particularly in Louth, because Dublin is sucking in all the skilled labour. For us to get local labour, we have to cross the Border and most of our contractors are from Northern Ireland. All of this is affecting the market price of a house. The second point is whether there are people fit to acquire affordable units, and the financial institutions have a part to play in providing finance for those units. We look at our rent schemes and our average rents are going up. There is more money, therefore, and tenants have more money. It is a question of supply and demand. The Deputy is correct that it is a hard question to answer.

We have used the single-stage process once and we are currently using it for our CPO units, which we do in bundles. It requires an element of work, particularly pre-planning work in preparing schemes and to ensure we have the costings correct. The single-stage process has worked for us. We welcome the first increase in the limits and we will welcome the second increase that is coming in January. It requires an element of work which we are happy to take on.

With regard to emergency accommodation, Louth has a range of 120 to 160 adults in emergency accommodation, and we peaked at 160. There are various reasons for presentation. Our submission states that, traditionally, we always had a homeless population of perhaps 40 to 50 individuals, going right back to the 1980s. The issue is the difference between 50 and 160. It is a different cohort from previously. We are talking about people who have lost units, particularly from the buy-to-let sector, where units have been taken back by the financial institutions. One of the more significant grounds for presentation is where the landlord has lost the property and the tenant presents as homeless. We never had families presenting as homeless before but we do now. We have opened our first hub and used private leases and the HAP scheme to get accommodation for those people. Nonetheless, homelessness is an everyday challenge, even in a small county like Louth.