Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis na finnéithe. I thank the witnesses and apologise for coming in and out while carrying out my important role as a super-sub for Deputy Gould. I am a poor imitation of a Corkman.

I will follow up on some of what has been said.

I find it very interesting that height is not necessarily density. Every local authority is speaking about compact growth and almost every developer is adding a little more height so he can take something off to then be able to get what he actually intended through. We all know the difficulty that we do not necessarily have the planning piece in play for the type of homes we would like to be delivered, without even getting into the numbers. That is one thing.

Has the relationship with councils changed in the last while? My local authority in Louth at one stage almost deferred all building to AHBs on the basis that they could draw the money down more easily and the council was not going to be encumbered, as the council saw it, with having to stump up the money for maintenance because the local authority had an insufficient budget for that. In the last while, however, it has got its own targets and I am told in some cases it is pushing some of the AHBs away and is seeking to take that on itself. In fairness, that is okay. Once we have the funding streams for maintenance in place, I would be delighted with that. I believe there is a wider issue around estate management, but I will return to that piece.

They all have said that fixed contracts is the difficulty. I think Louth local authority's build for social housing this year, between AHBs and itself, is to be 650. We heard it was going to be 400 and then one of the councillors told me the other day, and I met the director of services two weeks ago, that it could be 300. They said it is not so much that people cannot get workers but that they cannot get supplies. Again, nobody wants to take on contracts. What are the witnesses' view on the tendering systems? The Construction Industry Federation, CIF, has spoken about Fédération Internationale Des Ingénieurs-Conseils, FIDIC, contracts and I believe there is another contract too.

I have asked enough questions. They would probably take 45 minutes to answer but I ask the witnesses to do their best.