Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for coming before the committee. I thank the teams who are at the coalface of the crisis. They are doing great work. We know more has to be done as quickly as humanly possible.

I thank the witnesses because I know many people put a lot of time, effort and expertise into this area. I have four questions for both of the witnesses and then one for each council. I would like both witnesses to talk us through the affordable housing pipeline and what balance they aim to strike in terms of cost rental and affordable purchase.

In terms of voids, are the councils utilising the full budget and what is the average turnaround time? I think somebody else touched on this earlier. How many new staff have the councils taken in under the Housing for All allocation? They would have got approval to hire planning staff and inter-housing delivery teams.

I would also welcome a comment on an article today in The Irish Timesabout an unwillingness among developers to collaborate with local authorities when it comes to public housing. Do the witnesses find any particular roadblocks in that regard? I know the expressions of interest do not necessarily materialise.

The overall figure for Dublin City Council is 15,000. Could I get a breakdown of that by year? I note the reference made to the accessible homes being delivered in a scheme in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown. That is very important. Is there any information on the number of people on waiting lists who require accessible homes? Is information available on whether people who are on the waiting lists are in hospital or in rehabilitation and are waiting for accessible homes to be made available, either through the AHBs or the council? There are five questions for each of the witnesses. Five minutes should be okay time-wise.