Mr. John McCarthy:

Some of Senator Boyhan's earlier questions were to do with pillars 1 and 2 and I might leave those for the Minister, who will be dealing with pillars 1 and 2 in totality when he comes in. I might refer to the St. Laurence's Park example because it is a broader issue of vacant housing which came up separately.

In terms of vacant housing within the public housing stock, we have made significant progress over the past number of years in bringing vacant social housing units back into use. In overall terms, the figure is in excess of 7,000. Some local authorities report - certainly, one of the larger Dublin local authorities would have made reference to it - having fewer than 50 units vacant at any point in time as part of almost the normal churn.

However, there can be situations, and I think the Chairman was referring to this, where units can be vacant as part of a regeneration-type project. Based on what Senator Boyhan has said, there may be two or three households that are still in situ. We will continue to engage with the council because, as the Chairman has said, it has been engaging with us, and on the issues of funding, etc.

Reference was made to the broader issue of our engagement with local authorities generally as part of driving momentum with regard to the social housing programme. On a structured basis, the Department would have quarterly engagements with the housing team in the local authority and that provides an opportunity for a comprehensive run through of its programme to deal with any issues arising and to push on because our message to local authorities and indeed to approved housing bodies is that they should bring forward the projects and significant funding is available. In respect of the social housing pipeline update we published along with the quarterly progress report, in the space of the three months of quarter one, we have seen the pipeline increase from about 8,400 units to over 10,000 so in the space of one quarter, the pipeline has expanded quite significantly but that is something we want to maintain. This momentum is really what it is all about.

Apart from those structured quarterly engagements, we would have a range of engagements with local authorities, particularly but not exclusively in the areas of greatest pressure. We meet very regularly with all of the Dublin local authorities. A delivery group is in place for Cork, which involves bringing the two local authorities there together with the Department and other players. We have a lot of bilateral engagement with individual local authorities, particularly from a problem-solving point of view. There can be many issues such as those relating to cost, messy sites or planning but our overall approach is to try to engage with local authorities on a problem-solving basis. I am not saying there will not be difficulties because they exist. There are knotty issues where we find ourselves having to work hard with local authorities to work through them to get to a point where we are delivering a quality product and value for money.

In respect of the fast-track planning system, which was mentioned by a number of members, as Senator Boyhan said, the regulations have been made and that will kick off next Monday. I acknowledge that it took us a little bit longer than we would have liked. Ultimately, we ended up with 70 pages of regulations. It became quite complex and we were determined to ensure that we got it right. The Senator's point about information and infographics is well made. If the Senator has documentation, we will certainly take that on board. I know An Bord Pleanála has plans to publish its own guidance relating to the process and will be holding an information session on the new arrangements on Wednesday, 5 July. We will certainly take that piece from the Senator.

In respect of State lands referenced in the quarterly progress report, we have taken the first steps to pull together the bulk of State land potential for housing in a single mapped database that is now available online. Again, we are engaging with all of the local authorities, particularly where there are sites that have significant scale potential, to move those sites forward. Dublin City Council is already progressing a number of sites, as is South Dublin County Council with regard to one very large site. In parallel with that, the Housing Agency has a prepared a land management plan for the 70 sites in the land aggregation scheme.

On the basis of its work, it sees about half having immediate potential and the other half more medium-term potential. The process of engaging with local authorities on those sites is getting under way.

On housing delivery generally, we have put much focus on State lands because we recognise they do have potential, not just for housing delivery per se, but for mixed housing projects beyond the 10% social housing requirement and for some affordable rental. They are quite important in the overall mix of housing supply coming forward.

Mr. David Walsh has up-to-date figures for student accommodation.