Mr. John Coleman:

We are focused on the main urban areas of country, which is in line with our mandate. As we are essentially a start-up agency - or have been, albeit maturing now – we have devoted much of our energy to the larger sites in order to achieve some of that scale in light of the chronic need for delivery. I understand the point about housing being an issue outside the five city areas. We discuss this issue all the time with local authorities outside Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford. There are jobs and investment that can depend on housing availability outside of these areas. However, our focus has been on the main areas.

We released a report on State lands earlier this year that focused on the top ten urban areas by population in the country. Later on this year, we will be issuing a second version report that will encompass many more of the leading towns in the country. I have no doubt it will include Ennis and Shannon. That will reveal where the State has landholdings that could be released for housing development, and I think we can play a role in shining a light on some of those opportunities.

The avenues that are open to the LDA are also open to local authorities in respect of dealing with developers to bring forward affordable purchase schemes and so on. This means there are other avenues through the State that homes can be released. However, we will pay greater focus to the larger towns going forward. Our remit is towns and cities with a population of over 10,000. I think, off the top of my head, Ennis and Shannon are well above that.

Our experience is that the use modular as a construction methodology is increasing in terms of schemes that we use but also in what we encounter with developers. It tends to be elements that are, say, precast concrete that are done off-site that are brought in to construct the scheme. For instance, on Shanganagh, there are precast concrete for quicker, cleaner delivery. Others that we deal with employ similar methodologies. Timber frame houses are another initiative that other developers are using. We have some experience with modular but there is greater potential to use it more.

In this country, 3D volumetric modular has not been a big part of delivery yet. It has been used successfully in other jurisdictions but mainly the economies you get with it only start coming apparent above ten storeys. We tend not to like going too high in this country. Where buildings are of 20, 30 or 40 storeys, they can mushroom up quite quickly. The cost is roughly the same but the saving is in time. We think our focus will be on off-site elements of the construction as opposed to pure 3D building off site, where you crane them in and bolt them together. We think they are more suited to the schemes we have.

Is there another question in the Deputy's list that I have not answered?