Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the delegations from the Housing Alliance and the CCMA. I thank them for their work. I will focus on the CCMA now as we will have a second round of questioning and I understand the CCMA has equally important work to do down below, as it were. I welcome the CCMA, and Mr. Curran in particular, who has just taken up the role in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. He is in it two or three months, or possibly less. I was a councillor in the area and I wish him well. It is an especially exciting task and an important juncture for that council. I also acknowledge Mr. Curran as the chair of the CCMA housing, building and land use committee.

I have a few very focused questions. In his statement on behalf of the CCMA, Mr. Curran referred to the range of methods for providing homes. Will he tell the committee the priority in that regard? I will go through the rest of my questions before asking Mr. Curran to reply, if he does not mind. What funding commitments are in place from the Department and is Mr. Curran confident he can deliver the targets set down? I know they are to be finalised and we are still waiting on that. A total of 47,500 units are committed to in new build social housing to 2026. We are now in 2022. Will Mr. Curran confirm his confidence in the delivery of that programme? Will he take us through what will be delivered and the expected output for the remainder of this year? That is very important.

Are councils free to raise finance themselves? We need greater clarity on the capacity of local authorities to raise funding for themselves in their own right. Will Mr. Curran speak to that? With affordable housing, are chief executives clear about the affordability criteria because I am beginning to doubt that from my own engagement? I am not quite sure if all chief executives fully understand matters relating to the housing affordability criteria. This relates to how prices will be calculated and eligibility will be determined.

Have the local authorities been given the regulations governing affordability? What do these provide for? I read some coverage in the Sunday newspapers that local authorities were still not aware of, and the Department has not finalised, the regulations governing affordability. Perhaps the CCMA is aware of them. I have a funny feeling it may have seen an advance copy of them because the CCMA has close engagement with the Department. Will Mr. Curran share some commentary in that regard?

I will leave it at that now. I will touch on another area later, as the Housing Alliance raised it, and that is the provision of serviced land at low costs for the approved housing bodies. It is a challenge and it is clear local authorities are best placed to come in there because of the synergy between the actors. There might be a role for the Land Development Agency, LDA, as well, but it is not represented here today. Will Mr. Curran deal with those points? I will come back if I need to put further questions.