Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 18 January 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government

Quarterly Progress Report Strategy for Rented Sector: Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government

9:30 am

Mr. David Walsh:

We are still getting further information from local authorities who are providing MCAs. The deadline for providing those was this month because it requires, in some cases, further detailed analysis. In terms of projects below €5 million, we are looking at the holistic amount and asking if we can make decisions on some of the smaller-scale projects in advance of approval. There are pros and cons to that in terms of assigning money before all the projects in the mix have been assessed. A portion was not set aside for smaller projects. When we get the full analysis in we will determine how quickly we can turn around the information. We have been engaging with and inviting in local authorities to update them and explain what they can do from their perspective, but 21 out of 31 is a good turnaround for what is a first call.