Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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My request for clarification concerned St. Laurence's Park and George's Place in Dún Laoghaire. I think the Minister is going to answer those questions so that is fair enough and I accept that. I would also like to address point 4.23, which is on page 47. This deals with accommodation in the rental sector. There are three points I would like to make about this. Is the Department prepared to engage with a policy shift towards publicly-built, publicly-owned properties that are privately rented on public lands? A number of people have touched on this issue. The reality is that there is lack of ability to even secure affordable accommodation, be it rental or purchase. There is a real case to be looked at again for properties that are publicly-built and owned but privately rented. There is also social rental, but what of private rental? Deputy Boyd Barrett set out some issues there. We see all of the benefits of that and it is really important.

There was also a suggestion that we might have a national differential rent scheme. That was in the context of public housing but I would have a national differential rent across the board for everybody who cannot afford it. The reality is that people have to have the ability to pay, be it public or private. Perhaps the witnesses might touch on that.

I also have an question on point 5.5 on page 56.

It states, "We will review the Tenant (Incremental) Purchase Scheme following its first year of operation." I note that it is stated in the covering note:

The review is now complete and a full report setting out the findings and recommendations has been prepared. Following consultation with relevant Departments on implementation arrangements, it is intended that definitive proposals will be brought to the Minister in June 2017.

It would be great if the Department could share the review with us at some point. It is one of the key objectives the Department undertook. It is now done and marked off in the report as "Status: Complete", so I ask the witnesses to share it or circulate it at the appropriate time. Clearly, they will brief their Minister - that makes sense - but I ask them to bear this in mind and keep us in the loop.

Finally, action No. 5.9, on page 57 of the report, states: "We will review planning legislation to allow the change of use of vacant commercial units in urban areas, [ - this might have been touched on by my colleague next to me - ] including vacant or under-utilised areas over ground floor premises, into residential units without having to go through the planning process." In layman's terms, what does this mean? It will mean that the Department will recategorise such units or designate them as exempt developments. I presume that would be the thinking. There are issues in this regard. However, for various reasons, the Department did not proceed with this objective anyway. It was not progressed for whatever reason. I ask the witnesses to elaborate on the Department's intentions in this regard. The Department did not proceed with the objective at that time, but there are implications for the planning code of the reclassification of such a case to non-compliance or an exempt development. "Exempt development" is actually the term I need. I ask the witnesses to touch base on the Department's intentions in this regard.