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

I am glad that Deputy Higgins has raised a number of issues, especially about affordable housing. It will be clear to the committee and people will be aware that provision of affordable housing, especially for affordable purchase and affordable rent, is a priority. The measures that we brought forward in budget 2021 are not insignificant at all. I am proposing some changes to the serviced sites fund that are subject to Government approval. The fund itself is €310 million and could provide more than 6,000 affordable homes. There are affordability issues in some areas, especially Dublin and Cork, and Galway to a lesser degree, where we may look at flexibility in the subvention that the State makes. Dublin City Council, for example, has come up against one of a number of obstacles and while I will not go into that in too much detail, we need flexibility to allow faster delivery.

Under the fund this year, homes will be built in Boherboy and a couple of good schemes have been announced in Dun Emer in Lusk, where we are looking at prices of between €165,000 and €265,000, remembering that the local authority will take an equity stake in that home for that development. The serviced sites fund can be used well. The concept is good but it needs to be repurposed. I will bring forward some of those changes in the affordable housing Bill. I am also looking at Part V provision and working that through with Government. I have made some comment on that, as the Deputy will see, about increasing the provision from 10% to 20%. That would protect the 10% social housing and bring in 10% affordable housing. We need a national affordable housing scheme, which we are bringing forward in the Bill, including affordable purchase, affordable rental for the first time, and an affordable cost-rental scheme.

I am committed to the pyrite remediation scheme. I was involved with its establishment in 2011. There is still work to be done by the Pyrite Resolution Board and we intend to continue that. I have asked the board to look at category 1 plus progression to see if we can expand the scheme further. We also have the defective blocks scheme that is currently in operation in Donegal and in Mayo. I am glad to say that applications to that scheme are increasing.

We gave a commitment about construction defects in the programme for Government. When I was a member of this committee, I met with the Construction Defects Alliance. Many of us did from across parties. Good work was done in the Safe as Houses report.

We said that we would establish an expert group along the lines of what was done with the original pyrite remediation panel. That group is up and running and is chaired independently by Seamus Neely, former CEO of Donegal County Council. It has had its first meeting. I expect it to bring recommendations to me and want it to operate independently of me. I am glad that the Construction Defects Alliance, the Apartment Owners' Network and others have been able to move on this quickly. There are some who would say just to bring in a remediation scheme immediately. We have to quantify the problem, its scale and its cost. The best people to do that are the people in that group chaired by Seamus Neely. I will not set a timeframe on their work because it is their work to do. They will report to me and make recommendations which I, in turn, intend to bring to Government.