Johnny Guirke (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Ms Maguire, Mr. McGowan and Mr. Lynch. It is good to see them here, together with members of Kildare local authority. I congratulate them on the housing developments they have delivered upon in the past number of years. As we all know, the biggest issue in Meath is probably rents and the price of houses. The only way we can get those prices down is to build more houses. The direct-build with the council is something that would be very important to me. Between the years 2022 to 2026 we will only build 20 houses per year more than we did from 2018 to 2021. What can we do to get those numbers up, where in Meath we probably have approximately 4,500 people on the local authority housing list? It is hard to see how we can get on top of a housing crisis if we do not get a much higher direct-build from the council. My first question is how do we go about getting that figure higher?

Has Meath County Council identified land. I am aware that it has some land of its own but has it identified land to buy and in which areas of the county does it intend to mostly build from now until 2026? I agree with Deputy O’Callaghan that borrowing to build, or even to buy the land, seems like a great strain on local authorities. If the Department came up with that money first, it would make a great difference, and would give the local authority more room to do other things within the local authority.

On the housing assistance payment, HAP, tenants who have been given notice to quit, is the local authority buying these houses and is this much of an issue at the moment?

Furthermore, what kind of a budget has the council for the repair of its own housing stock? I am aware that Meath County Council has a very significant housing stock of approximately 3,600 houses and there is a great deal of maintenance needed on those houses every year. Will more help be needed from the Department to deal with such costs?

Are we building one-bedroom houses? This is a big issue because the people who are on the housing list the longest, as we all know, are seeking one-bedroom houses. If we are not building one-bedroom houses, are we looking at the option of giving these people a two-bedroom house, if we do not have the option of building one-bedroom houses?

On the housing grants, we all know that the housing grants for people with disabilities are great and are a very significant help to people, whether adapting showers, and so forth. What kind of a budget do we have for windows and doors?

There are a few housing bodies building houses in County Meath at the moment and I see that one of them has gone into receivership. Will that delay the delivery of those houses and if so, can Meath County Council indicate by how long?

The Taoiseach said this week that the thresholds for eligibility for social housing in local authorities will be increasing by €5,000. Does this apply to County Meath and when will this be open to applicants?

In addition, how much money has the county council received from the Department this year, has it been spent and is the county council receiving enough funding to deal with the housing situation in County Meath? I thank our guests again for coming in to appear before the committee.