Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for the explanation. There has been a significant carryover of more than €200 million into the local authority social housing investment programme. Can the Minister give an indication of how the underspend this year has impacted on the projected targets for social housing output? That would be helpful for us to understand.

It is important we support local government. There are approximately 48 outstanding staff requests from housing departments throughout the State. The Minister replied to a parliamentary question from me on this recently. Is there provision within the existing Estimates to get those staff up and working in the relevant sections of the housing departments this year? They are key for housing delivery in many local authority areas.

There is an increase in the Estimates for the housing assistance payment, HAP, of approximately €26 million, which is approximately half the increase on the previous year. However, a target is set out in the Budget Statement of 14,800 new HAP tenancies. Obviously, the Minister will not cover 14,800 new HAP tenancies from €26 million additional spending. Does the Minister expect there will be a reduction of current HAP tenancies and that is where he will make up the shortfall? He has roughly the same number of new HAP tenancies in the targets as previous Governments, but half the increase.

Given the announcement this week on the changes to the defective block scheme affecting western seaboard counties, are there any proposals to increase the budget allocation for that scheme? Will the Minister come back with a further Supplementary Estimate in parallel with the legislation next year? Notwithstanding the controversy around the sliding scale, more money will be needed next year. Can the Minister give us an update on that?