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

I thank the Senator for his questions. He began by making a very important point about the ongoing work that is being done to review Rebuilding Ireland. As I said earlier, this is a working committee. We work through different problems and challenges we have. When issues are raised, we try to resolve them. We recently made good progress by finalising the short-term letting regulations and the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2019. I appreciate the engagements we have. I hope the committee appreciates the documentation we have provided to update it on the action plan and the other reports we have given to it. I take this opportunity to thank my officials for their offline engagement as well.

The first point I want to make about the rapid-build pipeline is that rapid prefabricated off-site technology construction is not just a homelessness solution. I know that is how it was initially introduced as a concept, but it is now very much taking over from traditional building in the private sector and in other areas. What they are able to do now is fantastic in terms of the quality. It is a quicker form of development when one gets on site. There is no way to get around the procurement, planning and other things that need to be done before one gets on site. At the moment, we have more than 1,100 such builds in the pipeline. In excess of 400 such builds have already been delivered. More than 200 such builds are on site. We are about to see the new volumetric programme, which is using prefabricated off-site construction technology, for multi-storey developments. There are 300 such builds to go on site in the next quarter. That is where we are with this pipeline.

I thank the Senator for reminding me that we have already had two workshops, with a further regional workshop to come. They are being chaired or hosted by the Department in conjunction with the County and City Management Association. They are looking at a range of issues, including the targets of each local authority under the various streams of delivery and the appropriate use of the land that can be used. Each local authority was asked to do an economic assessment around affordable modelling. That is being addressed as well. Collaboration with housing bodies is very important because housing bodies have been raising issues concerning land. Issues like the provision of emergency accommodation and the standards of such accommodation are also being addressed. The vacancy teams that are in place are drawing up vacancy plans. The workshops give us a chance to do what we do at the summits in a more in-depth manner with each region. There are different challenges in each region.

The Senator alluded to the Galway task force, which is dealing with the challenge we have in Galway. We have taken the model we used in Cork, which has proven to be successful, and we have applied it to Galway. There has already been a meeting of the Galway task force. Ms Geraldine Tallon, who is a former Secretary General of the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, is chairing both the Cork and Galway task forces. The Galway task force is having another meeting in early June to look at how particular land will help to unlock the delivery problem that is being experienced in the city.

Twenty-six schemes of priority have been sent into the Department and local authorities have approved ten of them. All of the schemes in Dublin and the schemes in Galway and Cork have been approved. We want to get the remaining schemes over the line. We have an affordability pipeline in place, so it is important that they are over the line. Various local authorities have taken different approaches in line with the flexibility they have. I am open to keeping this under review. I understand what has happened in Dún Laoghaire. I have spoken to representatives from Dún Laoghaire about some of the changes they would like to see in the future. We need to see how the initial scheme will work. The scheme was developed in consultation with Members of the Oireachtas. We believe it is a good scheme of priority. If people think that further amendments can be made, I am open to them. We need to agree those schemes where houses are going to be delivered first. We need to get them working.

I have a document on what is happening with the Land Development Agency's work in Dundrum, but I cannot share it. I will give the Senator an overview of the timeline for the Dundrum site. Design development is already under way for that site. It is intended to progress to a full design competition in the third quarter of this year, to have a detailed design in place next year and to go for planning in the second or third quarter of next year. We believe we will have vacant possession of the hospital at the end of the third quarter of next year. A great deal of work is happening on the design side to get ready for the planning application to go in. We need to have engagement with local stakeholders as well. When a Department or agency makes its first proposal, it is sometimes so out of kilter with what is needed for the site that people are not open to considering any kind of reform or change in that proposal. I do not want to see that happen in this instance. We need to make sure that when we have possession of this site, we can move quickly with a development that people will support. Not everyone will support it. The Senator knows as well as I do that people object to housing in their local areas for a host of reasons or excuses, depending on the reasons being proffered. We will be as sensitive as we can to local concerns while recognising that we can deliver a great deal of affordable housing on this site.

The Land Development Agency's other function is to manage State sites better by identifying where an existing use might not be optimal. We are looking at that. When we look at certain sites, we realise that they may not require the existing function to be moved because we can build over it. That is being looked at as well. Other cities have been quite efficient in allowing an existing function to remain on a site while building above it. The changes we have made with regard to densities and heights will allow us to do that on certain sites.