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

With regard to the defective block scheme, we have, as the Deputy knows, published significant changes that will increase the commitment by Government from €1.4 billion, by adding €800 million to that scheme, on which we have worked hard with residents to put together. I do not expect to and will not be coming back to the committee for any Supplementary Estimate in that regard in 2022. We have made provision for 2022. Provision is also made in the national development plan, NDP. Additional funds will be required as the scheme ratchets up. We need legislation on this. Obviously, I will be seeking the co-operation of the committee to make sure we get the legislation to underpin the defective block scheme set up on a sound legislative footing, but we need to get it through quickly. I need to publish that legislation, on which we are already working, in February. The scheme needs to be set up for Exchequer intervention such as this, which is unprecedented. We cannot keep running it on regulations, as the existing scheme was set up, under the 1979 Act.

I have flagged we were also bringing in an industry levy. That will be from the finance Bill 2022, which will take effect from 2023. It will also be paying into this fund, which I do not see dealing with just mica and defective blocks. Work is also being done on the working group on fire defects I have set up and on which the committee has been involved. This country needs to grasp the nettle of this issue and help those homeowners, too. However, I am sure we will have another session and I will not delay. We have to be forward looking to ensure these things do not happen again.

Significant exits are projected for HAP. The Deputy will know in the past two budgets, I have reduced the level of increase in HAP by 1,000 each year. I want us to reduce our dependency on HAP and I know all members do, as we increase our new housing builds. For a number of years, this tipping point has been talked about, when housing construction would overtake HAP increases. Next year, we are targeting 9,000 brand new builds in social housing. That does not include other measures that will deliver more than 12,000 homes.

We are seeing the increase in HAP reducing any significant exits, but not significant increases in the overall tenancies. They do not cancel each other out. HAP is necessary. I am acutely aware HAP, the rental accommodation scheme, RAS, and other measures such as this are of significant cost to the Exchequer. In many instances, they are done out of absolute necessity, because there is no other option. This has not be called for today, but there have been calls saying this is a supplementary to the private rental sector. This is actually about supporting families in homes. We cannot just turn the tap off on it overnight and the committee, in fairness, understands that, but I want to continue to reduce our dependency on it.

The Deputy received a reply to a parliamentary question on staffing from me recently. Some 49 staffing requests are being dealt with at present. Well over 1,000 housing posts have been approved in the past number of years. The 49 staffing requests have details outstanding on which we are following up. A review is happening between my Department and local government. We would approve posts and sometimes one would go to a local authority which would say it was waiting for the Department to sanction it. When one looked behind it, that may not have been the case. That process needs to improve.

I mentioned in committee last night the legislation we were passing on moving the planning function for large residential developments back to local authorities, which we all supported. I will also be making a significant announcement in the coming days on further additional resources under housing for all for all local authorities. We are finalising that, but that will be in a matter of days. Certainly, I will be sharing the detail of that with the committee, because we need to continue to resource local government.

The carryover of €58 million was brought into the social housing capital investment, SHIP, in 2021 and this is being drawn down in the first call of expenditure in 2022.

There was an underspend because of the construction shutdown and the lag time in getting back to the capacity we needed on-site. That will lead to a significant reduction in what the projected output at the start of the year was before that wave of Covid hit. We are making up for some lost ground. I do not have the final figures for quarter three yet but when I do we will share them. We are pushing to deliver more new homes this year than we did last year. The projection into next year is positive and we have over 8,000 social houses on-site and under construction as we speak. There is a good pipeline on the social housing and cost rental sides and we are pushing forward in the affordable housing as well. As soon as I have quarter three figures and we have checked them and gone through them we will share that with the committee. I thank the Deputy for his questions.