Mr. David Kennedy:

The Senator asked where the blockages were today. If I were to pick out two points, the first would be zoning. To amplify the point significantly, Goodbody undertook a report about 12 months ago on the amount of zoned land in the greater Dublin area and found there was a shortage of some 70,000 units. What the report was silent on but that became evident when looked into was that there was capacity in the system 12 months ago to build 70,000 units in the greater Dublin area. Looking at the densities involved in those sites, only 18,000 to 20,000 houses in the greater Dublin area will be available on zoned land to cover the next five years. A person does not have to be an expert to know that is not enough.

The reaction or the way to unblock that is to proceed with variations to the plan. This is not a question of changing development plans in 2027 or 2028. If we are to achieve significant levels of housing activity - I will come back to apartments in a minute - a significant increase in zoned land has to come about through variations of the county plans in every county, particularly in the greater Dublin area. It does not matter whether through the permanent council or councillors, it needs to happen. We talked about the-----