Mr. Mick Mulhern:

Housing delivery is critically important in helping to solve this long-term problem. In the Dublin city area, we have a housing delivery action plan which sets targets for 2022 to 2026. In 2025 we will likely just meet our target of 2,122 homes, hopefully. What we are seeing as we track this is that we are on target at the moment, with about 300 homes completed so far. We are closely monitoring that. On current projections we are likely to exceed the housing delivery action plan targets for 2026. That said, we do appreciate that we will be receiving higher numbers, or increased housing targets but what I would say is that the local authority and the AHB sectors have ramped up significantly from a much lower base of housing delivery four years ago to what we are doing now. There is capacity within the sector to further increase that and deliver more. We are discussing what those measures might look like with the Department.

In terms of the impact on the PPPs within Dublin City Council there were three projects in bundle 3, as well as one in Sligo, one in Wicklow and one in Kildare. Those projects were due to start on site in July but they are delayed. We are currently working on an alternative route to get those out to market. We are working on that at the moment and hope to be clear within the next month as to what the revised timeline and route looks like. Future bundles 4, 5, 6 and 7 were not as advanced so we are also considering what the alternative delivery model is for those. While there might be some delay on those later bundles, they will not be as affected as bundle 3, which was due to start on site in July. Once we have clarity on the timeline, we will make the elected officials and community groups aware of the new timelines.