Mr. John McCarthy:

One of the commitments in the Rebuilding Ireland strategy is the preparation of an overall student accommodation strategy by the Department of Education and Skills. My understanding is that this is at a fairly advanced stage and should be finalised shortly.

Regarding the rolling out of LIHAF, the local infrastructure housing activation fund, there is a budget available to us every year. However, we have tried to ensure it will allow the actual infrastructural works that are capable of being delivered in any one year, taking account of procurement and other issues which need to be gone through. However, as is always the case with the housing budget generally, we keep it under ongoing review. Accordingly, if there are pressures in some areas and scope in others, we are always amenable to moving moneys from one programme to another if it ultimately gets us the best outcomes. We will continue to keep that under review.

The review of rent pressure zones that was signalled has commenced. There is a public consultation process under way which closes this Friday.

On the Deputy's question about areas that arose, I will follow up with him on the reply he got. From what he said, it was not entirely clear as to what happens in the circumstances in question. There is a provision in the legislation which allows the Housing Agency to review an area where a rent pressure zone applies, if it considers the housing market has changed and should no longer be designated as a zone. I am not sure that was made 100% clear to the Deputy in the reply. I will follow up separately on that.

Last week when he was at the committee, the Minister touched on the vacant housing strategy. He indicated a significant amount work has been done on it but he just needs to take a little bit of time to look at it. Some interdepartmental engagement will also be required before it can be finalised. Bringing forward that strategy is a reflection of the seriousness with which the potential of vacant properties from a housing point of view is being taken. That said, we have some experience of several local authorities which have taken some of the census data and what it tells them about where it would seem there are significant concentrations of vacant properties. In some areas - it is not uniform by any means - they have done on-the-ground surveys.

It seems as if at least some of the property that emerged in the census as vacant has in the meantime come back into use, for private housing or other purposes. As I stated, a broader issue in this regard is being examined as part of the vacant housing strategy.

On planning exemptions and the matter of ground-floor and upper-floor units, we intend to make exempted development regulations that would allow for the conversion from commercial use to residential use. The question, however, was more about the inclusion in the development plan or local area plan of an objective not to allow that. My first reaction is that there are probably only two ways to get around that. Mr. Walsh can certainly correct me if I am wrong. There would either be a material contravention permission or a review or variation of the development plan. In the short term, the material contravention might very well be the quicker way of dealing with it.

With regard to mortgages, which were raised by Senator Murnane O'Connor, we are certainly considering the current mortgages that are available through local authorities to determine whether they can be better promoted and so there can be a better understanding in regard to them. Ultimately, we have to ensure that to whatever extent local authorities are giving mortgages, it is on the basis of sound credit policies. We have had that conversation before. It is a matter we all know about and understand.

One of the points the Senator raised strays into a broader issue, that of affordability more generally. It also concerns limits for access to social housing and what is occurring in the private market, be it in regard to rental or purchasing. We have indicated that the income limits for eligibility for social housing will be reviewed in the second half of the year. We will be taking that forward after the summer. There is, however, a question over some of the further measures the Minister and Taoiseach have flagged that might be wise to consider. Maybe this is something the committee may wish to consider as part of the review process in which the Minister is now engaging. It concerns whether there are things we should be doing in the space between eligibility for social housing and market housing, be it rental housing or housing for purchase. We must determine whether more needs to be done regarding what might be termed as the affordable space.

The Senator referred to a few figures and budgets of different amounts. She may have been reflecting on the question of whether the money is being spent. Certainly, the money is very much being spent. The most recent figure in my head is that about €540 million from the housing budget has been spent thus far in the year. That is probably between two and a half to three times what was spent at this time of the year in 2016. This obviously reflects the fact that the budget is higher but also that the pace of expenditure and the momentum in the programme have ramped up quite significantly.