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

I thank all of the witnesses for being here with us today. Increased capacity and accelerated delivery when it comes to housing is pretty much what this committee is all about. All of the witnesses have a role to play in Housing For All as well. From the opening statements, I see that it is all about identifying issues for the Government to look at, whether that is the national planning framework, compulsory purchase order, CPO, powers, or the streamlining of licensing. What was not included in the witnesses' opening statements were the issues within their own organisations, which we also need to look at. From a Construction Industry Federation perspective we know there are developers and speculators who are sitting on land and sitting on planning permissions. We know that we have situations, and we certainly have had very high-profile situations in the past, where we have not been able to occupy whole new housing estates because they are awaiting connections with the ESB or with Uisce Éireann. It is important to acknowledge this because it is important that we learn how to get under the hood of those issues and how to fix those issues. I thank Ms Yvonne Harris for outlining some of what Uisce Éireann is doing to speed up its own connections. I put this question to the ESB. What is the current service level agreement, SLA, for want of a better phrase, on connections and how are things going in that regard?

In the Uisce Éireann opening statement reference was made to the triage system. I would like to learn a little bit more about this, whether this is within its own scope to do, or is it something the Government needs to provide direction on. Are entire estates treated the same as individual once-off rural houses? How are things graded with regard to priority?

I commend the ESB in particular on its apprenticeship scheme and it doubling - I am really impressed by that - and with the delivery capability being increased by 85%. What does that look like to the end consumer? What does that look like to the person who is buying the house? I agree with the CIF when it says that the additional costs cannot be incurred by people buying houses in the context of the new legislation that is coming down the tracks. Perhaps Mr. Tarrant from the ESB can take that primary question first about how things are speeding up.