Mr. Dermot Lacey:

My name is Dermot Lacey and I am from Dublin City Council. In deference to the Chairman's statement that the report is being circulated, I will not go through the entire submission but comment briefly. The bottom line is that we need to build houses. One can have all the policies and strategies but there is simply a lack of homes and they need to be provided. In order to deliver on some of the ambitious targets, a huge amount of funding is required. It is estimated that this is in the region of €5.5 billion. We recognise that this will be a challenge for whoever is in Government but it is a challenge that must be met. We welcome the recent comments by the Housing Finance Agency that it can lend at a fixed rate of 1.75% to local authorities for social housing projects. The agency has stated that it has the capacity to deliver up to €10 billion and we believe this offer should be accepted. We recognise that there are EU issues but there is an emergency and Government has the freedom and flexibility to declare an emergency in respect of this issue.

We also support the proposals from the Irish League of Credit Unions, which has said that it will work with approved housing bodies to deliver additional housing units. There is no conflict between the provision of local authority housing and housing by approved housing bodies provided that the allocation system is administered fairly and in an above-board fashion.

The main point I wish to make is that we would like to see procurement, tendering and what I can only describe as departmental interference addressed because they are key blockages in tackling the housing crisis. The length of time it takes to deliver social housing and procurement process delays are unacceptable. I can provide the committee with examples. I have followed one particular housing scheme involving the provision of 19 housing units in the middle of Donnybrook not just because I live there, but because it is a high-demand social housing area. Full financial approval was given for that scheme in June 2015. It should have reached planning application stage last January but because of the tendering process, it has not even reached that stage. A project to deliver 19 housing units in a high-demand area that will take ten months to build will take at least 36 months from the allocation of funding to people moving in. This is clearly unacceptable and is due entirely to the requirement that every time the local authority makes a change, the Department must approve it and every time the Department makes a change, the council must approve it. We either employ professionals or we do not. The need to reduce bureaucracy to allow a swifter tendering system is key to delivering social housing. As one of my colleagues pointed out earlier, it also would have a profound impact on employment. If we can get housing built more quickly, we will not alone solve the housing issue, but provide quality employment to people who need it. I will comment later on so I will be brief on this occasion.