James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)

I thank the members very much for their questions. Working backwards, I want local authorities to be building. Some are doing it quite successfully. Meath County Council, for example, has a fantastic record and we want to see it doing even more. Other local authorities not far from County Meath have a very poor record of self-building. I worry about the local authorities relying on Part V housing and affordable housing because they are not building up that self-build capacity and skill set that were lost through decisions that were made and the consequences of same. Local authorities now building up that experience and skill set are providing themselves with a robust situation should the economic conditions change in future. They will have that skill set in place. I used the example of County Donegal, which does not really have that much of a private sector going in terms of building new houses. It does not really have an active affordable housing undertaking. If the economic situation changed and local authorities like that were not building, they would suddenly find themselves in a very serious situation in terms of being able to deliver social housing.

Turning to the issue of voids, I would really be leaning on local authorities not to be spending large amounts of time in terms of getting voids turned around. Between 2014 and 2023, €360 million was provided to local authorities to return to use more than 23,000 vacant properties. Significant funding was given to the local authorities to bring historical properties back into play. They needed big funding to do it. Now, though, the local authorities should be able to manage their stock with their rental income.

On the topic of judicial reviews, we have a section in the Planning and Development Act 2024 - I forget the specific section number - in this regard and we will be commencing it in the next couple of weeks, certainly before the end of July.

Commencing that part is important and we will be doing that. There is not one local authority that has drawn down all of its tenant in situ funding. In fact, only seven or eight have drawn more than 50% of their funding.