Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy and accept the point he makes on one-bedroom units but some of our focus in that context relates to homeless individuals who want single person accommodation. He has a point with regard to family breakdown where people might need extra space. The provision of one and two-bedroom units as well as larger homes is a big problem. I have already said to our partners, including the approved housing bodies and local authorities, that when they are designing schemes they must design for communities, meaning that there should be a mix of unit types.

On voids in town and village centres in particular, I have spoken previously about how our planning guidelines are holding back development in some instances. We want to see people back living on our main streets. One really good scheme in regional towns and villages that has worked well so far and in which the Peter McVerry Trust has been involved is the repair and lease scheme. The buy and renew scheme also has a lot of potential. A number of units have been brought back into use in Fermoy and several other regional towns.

Applications under the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund, URDF, including from Limerick, are being assessed at the moment. The assessments are being done by an independent team and will come to me for final approval. I expect to be making an announcement at the end of October or in early November in that regard. Funding of €2 billion will be provided out to 2027, which is significant. I have figures here on the draw down so far. Call one funding, a lot of which was for the planning stages, was €16.7 million. As I said, call two funding decisions will be made before the end of the year. I am aware that some really good applications have been submitted and they are being assessed right now. Those assessments will then come to me but I note the points made by the Deputy on the importance of funding for Limerick.

Infrastructure is crucial, as I said at the start. We have to bite the bullet on water infrastructure at some stage. I hope that we will be able to make some progress in the forthcoming budget on further investment in capital infrastructure for water in both rural and urban areas.