Mr. Eddie Taaffe:

My understanding on the section 28 is that it will be a direction to all local authorities purely because the Minister has used that word himself. He will be directing it. It will be mandatory for all local authorities to vary their developments plan to reflect the new population targets.

On the voids, or the pre-let repairs, which is a phrase I would prefer to use, no, I do not think so. We do the right level of work. We try to aim for the €11,000. We do the level of work that is necessary given the condition of the stock, and given that it is right to replace components of a house that need replacing. We obviously are seeing increased costs in that. Construction costs are nearly double what they were pre-Covid for that type of work and there are only so many contractors who will actually work with the local authorities and turn those houses around quickly.

On the drawdown, generally we draw down quarterly on our voids programme and our routine projects. On the social housing fund, the capital fund for new houses, we draw down as and when required. Generally speaking, that is not a huge issue. It can become a bit of an issue towards the end of the year when there is a huge amount of claims coming in for the capital programme. We can be waiting for a couple of months for significant drawdowns on our capital programme from the Department.

With regard to staffing and starting salaries, that is a very important issue, particularly with respect to the case the Deputy mentioned about technicians. Yes, that should be addressed. One of the issues we also fall foul of when it comes to recruitment is that if we recruit somebody who has not worked in a local authority before, even though they may have years of experience as an architect, engineer, quantity surveyor or whatever it is, because they are coming in as a new entrant to the local authority sector they automatically start at the bottom of the scale. That is even though previously, we would have been allowed to give them incremental credit saying their experience is valid, so we could put them up a couple of points on the scale to reflect that. We are not allowed do that at the moment, and that is a big problem for us with regard to recruiting and attracting people from outside. That is something we think should be changed and needs to be looked at. On the staffing report itself, we hope to have that concluded by the middle of the summer, there or thereabouts, with what our required list will be.

With regard to the tenant in situ scheme, the reality of it is that we, as local authorities, will acquire whatever funding is available. We will utilise what every funding is given to us to purchase tenant-in-situ properties that come to us and meet the criteria. Whatever level of funding there is is a matter for the Minister and the Government, and we will work within those confines.