Mr. Michael O'Flynn:

I thank the Deputy. In a nutshell, we saw the housing delivery oversight executive, as we call it and which has now graduated into being the activation office, as meaning that activation suggests something is there and we need to make it happen. That is not the case.

We saw this as a body that would be time limited and established in legislation in order to give it the authority it needs to identify and address the blockages and make things happen across the sector, whether that involves zoning, high delivery zones, infrastructure deficiencies, water, wastewater or utilities. This was a structure that would be introduced to change things immediately. It would not be part of the existing system, but needed to have public and private input. I anticipated there would be secondments from public authorities into a special unit.

At the time, we anticipated it being in the Taoiseach's office so that it would operate across Departments and make sure that immediate provision of housing would happen where it was not but should be happening and we would also deal with the shortage of zonings, investment, infrastructure and all that goes with that. That is very different from what is now being suggested. It is to be hoped that what is now being suggested will happen and bring about some of the changes we aspire to in the Housing Commission.