Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I believe that the affordable housing Bill has the potential to become a real game-changer in ramping up the delivery of much-needed affordable homes. The €468 million being provided for in Estimates is extremely significant. The Minister mentioned some changes that he is considering to allow for the faster and more efficient delivery of affordable homes on sites covered by the serviced sites fund. That would be welcome from the value-for-money perspective and I would be interested in hearing more information about the Minister's plans or proposals on that. It is great to see that the pyrite remediation scheme is included in the Estimates. What is not included is the provision for funding for homeowners impacted by construction deficits. We had a good session on that in our housing committee and I would be interested to hear of any progress that the working group is making.

Some of my colleagues have addressed HAP. From a different perspective, I would like to hear about HAP in the context of Covid, given that we have so many people who are temporarily reliant on social welfare, including the pandemic unemployment payment and other supports that the Government is providing during such an uncertain time. There are now more people eligible for, reliant on and accessing HAP, and I would be interested to know what plans are in place to help people to transition out of HAP as they get back in to employment.