James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Where it is with the local authorities, it should all be single-stage processes. Where, for example, a private developer may have got his own planning permission and is therefore providing turnkeys that may be off design or not built yet - which is the ideal as I do not like the idea of turnkeys that are ready-built houses going to local authorities; these should be sold on the private market - they do not have to go through any of those processes. It should be the local authorities engaging with them to purchase but obviously they have to get the funding approval from the Department. We need to see the delivery of local authorities themselves increasing substantially if we are going to address the housing crisis. The moving of the four-stage process down to a single stage and increasing the limits for single-stage from €8 million to €200 million really should mean there is no issue for local authorities in terms of a delay in delivering the social homes they need in their areas.