Mr. David Walsh:

The Deputy is correct that when he issued the first call for proposals, it was setting a price cap of €300,000 and a certain proportion of the units would be facilitated under the scheme. When we engaged with local authorities and looked at the scale and spread of projects, in some cases people had applied for between €15 million and €25 million for major infrastructural projects such as bridges and new roads, while others were applying for smaller amounts. On the discount and benefit that would accrue in the State taking up the cost of infrastructure as opposed to being dealt with normally through development contributions, we amended the requirements to provide two options. A local authority could in negotiations with the developer either facilitate a reduction in the price of a certain proportion of the homes or reduce by a proportionate rate the entire price list. It is a matter for local authorities and developers to work out which of the options suits. Either a proportion of the houses would be at a substantially lower price level or there would be an affordability dividend attaching to every unit provided by the private sector.