Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach and our witnesses for the presentation and Mr. Doyle, in particular, for his opening remarks. I welcome him to the Department and to the Committee of Public Accounts. Today is a great introduction for him.

I will start by sincerely thanking all of the staff of local authorities and, in particular, direct labour for their great assistance during this pandemic. Mr. Doyle’s opening remarks alluded to it but from the Community Call all the way through to the library services and the outreach services, local authorities were to the fore and acted in an exemplary manner. I pass on my appreciation and that of my party to everyone concerned.

The opening remarks of the Comptroller and Auditor General referred to the €3.9 billion expenditure of our witnesses' Department. Am I correct in saying €2.5 billion of this was spent on housing? My initial questions are on housing, and I have a number of them. I think I heard Ms Hurley mention that in 2019 there were 20,809 homes in pre-development stage, or it may have been Ms Ryan who said that earlier on. As to those nearly 21,000 homes at pre-development stage, under what kind of schemes are those homes being developed under? Can I get a snapshot of those, please?