Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North-West, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Minister for coming to the committee to update us. Deputies Hearne, Ellis and I met Dublin City Council to talk about the pipeline in our own constituency. I have to say there is a very strong pipeline of nearly 2,500 public homes all on public sites in our constituency. What was welcome to see on many of those was the mix of tenure. We have cost rental, social and affordable purchase. I would like to see more affordable purchase on some of those sites. The issue of viability is a factor in all of them but it is providing a real challenge, particularly in affordable purchase. Essentially, affordable purchase should be called "below the cost of construction" because that is essentially what it is. You take the cost of construction, minus €100,000, and we are selling it. The difficulty is that even when you apply that full €100,000 reduction, it is often above what they deem the market value.

My first question regards that issue of affordable purchase. The Department often takes into account the local market. It might say, for example, that with regard to a site proposed in Finglas west or Ballymun, it is cheaper to buy an existing former local authority home. You might get that for €300,000. To construct it you are coming in at €350,000 or €380,000 and therefore there is no need for the social home. They are totally different products. One is an A-rated home, high-spec and a new build and would be able to attract a higher rate than an old local authority house that is perhaps in need of refurbishment and so on. We need to draw attention to that issue of approving affordable purchase schemes because it is having a chilling effect on local authorities progressing affordable purchase.

Within that 2,500 pipeline there is a large number of sites that were in the PPP bundle, and not all in PPP bundle 3. Some are in PPP bundle 4, which I understand is still live and active. Others remain in bundles 5, 6 and 7. In fact, there are nearly 1,000 units in my constituency that rely on that PPP bundle so it is an incredibly important stream. Given that the Minister has updated the committee on the legal action that has been placed before the High Court by the successful bidder, can he outline how he proposes to unbundle those sites, if that is the way to do it? Without commenting on the legal action - because as the Minister has said, he cannot do that - what is the quickest route to construction for those sites?