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

I confirm that I am in Leinster House. First of all, I wish Mr. O'Rourke good luck in his new role. Notwithstanding Sinn Féin's very strong criticisms of both the legislative and policy underpinnings of the LDA, we genuinely wish him very well in the very challenging job that he has ahead. We look forward to working with him. I suspect his chief executive quietly breathed a sigh of relief when he read the section of his remarks on public policy and his adherence to the more traditional approach to not commenting on matters of public policy. His predecessor had a very creative, if not colourful, interpretation of that convention. I suspect it will make board meetings perhaps slightly duller, but possibly more productive. We will wait to see how that goes.

I wish to express one disagreement with Mr. O'Rourke's opening remarks. Planning is not a problem in housing. It is fundamentally different from some of the large and environmentally challenging infrastructure projects that he has dealt with previously. There is active planning permission for over 80,000 residential units passed, approved and ready to go. Many of those permissions are some years old, including through strategic housing development, SHD. While there has been an increase in judicial reviews in the past two years because of the controversial strategic housing development, that is because of bad planning applications, not because of delays in the planning process. Thankfully, the Planning and Development (Amendment) (Large-scale Residential Development) Act 2021 now has timelines on all aspects of the planning process for large-scale residential developments; therefore, it will not be a problem into the future.

A key interest of all of us is how many units the LDA will produce, when it will produce them, and what the price will be to rent or buy. Every time Mr. O'Rourke or Mr. Coleman comes to us, we will want much detailed information on that front. My questions are in that context. Can Mr. O'Rourke or Mr. Coleman give us an update on delivery timelines and prices? First of all, with the two short-term plans in Shanganagh and St. Kevin's, when will homes be delivered, by year and how many? What will be the prices to rent and, in particular, to buy?

On Project Tosaigh, I do not see how the LDA can deliver 5,000 homes over four years if they are not already under construction. Therefore, to deliver that target, the LDA will have to purchase turnkey properties that are already built and therefore be in competition with approved housing bodies, AHBs, local authorities, the Housing Agency under Croí Cónaithe, as well as institutional investors and private buyers. I am not asking for comments on individual applications. Can Mr. O'Rourke or Mr. Coleman give the committee any reassurance that the LDA will not be in the market for turnkey properties and it will be giving genuine additionality? If so, how it will meet that target?

Would they also be willing to give a commitment, with respect of the medium-term plans, to furnish this committee with a quarterly pipeline report? We get similar reports from the Department on its social housing so we can track delivery in terms of projects.

Finally, with respect of active land management, Mr. O'Rourke rightfully referenced the NESC report. Of course, the NESC report recommended very strong compulsory purchase order, CPO, powers. He will know the value of those from much of his previous work. He does not have those currently - he has meagre CPO powers for ransom strips. How will he be able to deliver the crucial active land management function - the thing many of us want him to do - in the absence of having the CPO powers that NESC recommended?