Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

My thanks to Councillors Sheahan, Fennelly, Colgan, Hoade and Anglim for being with us today. As my party spokesperson on local government, I value the engagement. I am not speaking on behalf of my colleagues but I believe there is an open invitation to the witnesses to participate in any of the tranches of legislation this committee is dealing with. We are dealing with the electoral reform Bill, which deals with the register. While we have concluded the public sessions on that the witnesses might examine it and decide whether they wish to make a written submission on that. That would be most welcome.

Many of the points made around the Moorhead report are important. My view is that the Moorhead recommendations are a minimum. I have said this for many years. If a councillor is lucky enough to serve for 20 or 30 years, he or she will have been paid less and have worse pension arrangements than the most junior person in the local authority. That is unsustainable. Councillors who commit all their time to the council should be rewarded in a way that is commensurate with other professional and administrative staff in the councils. The Minister knows my views on that.

The Land Development Agency and the Affordable Housing Bill are two sides of the same coin. I respect the rights of the councillors to protect reserve powers. That is important throughout the country. I do not believe it will be a major issue but that does not mean we should forgo the principle and I support the councillors on that point. I will continue to engage with the Minister on the matter. Many of my Fianna Fáil parliamentary colleagues have done so as well.

The real question is that we will not be fighting over a small number of projects. There will be enough work for councils and the Land Development Agency to deliver housing. Between the funding and the new housing Bill there will be a great deal of work ahead. They are the questions I wanted to put to the councillors present.

The new Bill essentially defines a price of €450,000 in Dublin as unaffordable. It provides the new long-term rental scheme for those not eligible for social housing and provides below-cost housing for those who wish to purchase. The term "public housing" is somewhat misunderstood and it includes owner-occupier housing. Certainly, that is my assessment of it.

Do the councillors believe that the officials have the ambition to match the councillors? My experience is that the blockage is not at the level of councillors but at the level of officials. Part 8 housing applications come before councillors. Does the number of Part 8 applications that come before each of the councils fall below five? In my experience the number coming before us each year was below five. That will not be good enough if we want to deliver affordable and social housing. I hope we will have all the tools in the coming weeks. The Minister says we will have the funding in June. The question is whether the officials will have the ambition to deliver and put Part 8 applications before each of the councils.