Mr. John Coleman:

That was put out at the very start, namely, at the time of our launch. I think there was a good basis. Proportionally, there had been similar historical achievements in other jurisdictions, mainly around planning schemes with the equivalent of our strategic development zones. These involved the planning and resourcing for delivery of large-scale areas. The figure would not be achieved even doing larger-scale infill developments. It would be for much larger-scale, strategic-level developments. I am referring to the likes of Clonburris, as a strategic development zone, and Adamstown, which can yield 9,000 or 10,000 homes per project. The good news is that we are considering areas of that scale. The Colbert area, Limerick, and Inchicore, Dublin, around the train works, and the Tivoli docks, Cork, are examples, although I grant that they are longer term. While we are very much focused on the near-term delivery, as the Deputy will gather today, these areas will in time become suitable for housing delivery. They have many constraints and these take time to work through, but we have a unit set up in the LDA dedicated to this. We should consider that each of the several large-scale areas we are working on can release 2,000, 4000 or 6,000 homes and the idea that the LDA's separate short-term delivery operations can probably get to a run rate of around 3,000 homes per annum in the next few years. Applying a 20-year lens at a rate of 3,000 homes per annum and adding in the homes from the major large-scale areas that can be planned and resourced to be delivered, you start to get a picture of delivery approaching the level the Deputy mentioned. However, it is a longer term aspiration.

We are focused on our business plan to 2028. As the LDA matures and we show we are on track in the context of that business plan, we are always discussing with our shareholders and the Minister as to how we scale up further and how the ambition can be expanded. We cannot lose sight of that big picture.