Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I beg your pardon, Chairman. I am sorry. The programme has not been shelved but the delays we are seeing are not necessarily at the on-site side. Some of the delays are in getting local authorities to use the delivery method. I hope the new procurement framework being pioneered by Dublin City Council on volumetric modular housing will open the way for other local authorities to use it as well. We are seeing significant interest from private companies. Companies have come to me saying that if I could give them a contract, they would open a factory off the M50 and start producing thousands of products. There are two problems in that regard. I cannot do that because of procurement law. I have sought to address the issue, but I have not been allowed to do it. The EU law in this area is incredibly tight. We cannot break procurement law even though we have a homelessness crisis and we know we need to ramp up the delivery of housing. Even if I could break procurement law, we would still have to go through the proper planning process and make sure that what we are doing is being built in the right place, to the right specifications and will not lead to us asking in 30 years why we did that, as we face a future crisis. We are trying to protect ourselves from future crises.

To return to the reclassification issue concerning housing bodies, I think one other country that might have been restricted in the same way has either said publicly it will or is considering pursuing this through the European Court of Justice, ECJ, which would have a pause effect on aspects of classification. I know we want clarity but sometimes a lack of clarity can be helpful in terms of driving delivery and getting things done. We will continue to be mindful of our obligations to deal with the classification issue while we bring forward the regulation Bill next year and while we continue to drive the delivery of housing bodies. I think I have addressed all of the outstanding questions.