Mr. Tony Smithers:

Ms Doyle oversees our caravan scheme and I concur with what she has said. Also, access is so important for fire safety and for people with mobility issues. Steps are one issue but we must also provide ramps for families who have mobility issues, which is an extra cost in respect of some of the caravans. I am in total agreement with what Ms Doyle said about the costs and lifespan. I will give a quick example. Recently Dublin City Council purchased three homes, so that is bricks and mortar, at a cost of €1.3 million for Traveller families who wish to move on to homes but we could have bought ten permanent homes for the Traveller community who wish to live culturally appropriately. Ten families can be housed or three. The Deputy is right in that it is looking for the increase in supplying permanent homes with a lifespan of between ten and 15 years for the Traveller community.

On Labre Park and the timeframe, a lot of hard work has gone into Labre Park over several years. That is working closely with the residents, most importantly, and working with the advocate groups, BTAP, and working with public representatives down there.

Phase 1 of the improvement works was carried out as an emergency project and was completed at the end of 2021. A full upgrade of drainage, water and electrical connections was completed, along with installation of fire walls and resurfacing of ground works. New and upgraded sanitation units were also provided to families on site. On completion of the works, both the HSE and the Ombudsman for Children attended the site to complete a review of the works. Both agencies were highly complimentary of the Traveller accommodation unit’s immediate response to the issues outlined and the standard of the works completed. That was on the actual works and I will move on to the overall redevelopment. A pilot waste management plan was also implemented on site and each family on site was provided with 1,100 litre bin and a weekly collection service, significantly reducing dumping on that particular site. The Traveller accommodation unit itself was focused on assisting Clúid Housing with the commencement of the redevelopment.

I come to where we are at with the redevelopment and I will put a timeframe into context if that is okay. We have had recent meetings and the Department gave us approval for €16.5 million for the accommodation part but it was €11 million short of dealing with the contaminated land which is also on a flood plain. We regrouped and had a lot of internal meetings with our internal departments and with Clúid. We have revised the plan and are meeting with the Department on 27 February to discuss the plan as it is now. We have three extra Traveller-specific accommodation homes to be included in the new plan. We will remove the flood risk and contaminated costs from the application. These were some of the clarifications needed to be addressed by the Department. The application will now be for 14 new-builds instead of ten and 19 refurbishments with extensions to cater for the families' needs. Two extra will be on the old community centre site, one at where No. 8 is, and we are building an extra large unit to facilitate a medical issue on site. These issues were addressed outside of Labre Park. Therefore, because the extra large one does not have to go there, we can build the extra one on that and we can put an extra home in there for one of the families. On the left-hand side as you enter Labre Park, Dublin City Council will provide 12 properly serviced temporary bays for families who are waiting for the new build to happen, and that is going to happen. What that means is, in accordance with the Department and some of the clarifications, this will allow the phasing of the redevelopment and that co-ordinated approach going forward for the families on site.

At the moment, a soil analysis has been ordered on site. Tier 1 will review the information to make recommendations. Tier 2 will commence if needed on tier 1 assessment, obviously, and an EIAR will also be done in conjunction. This is being done now so it does not delay the timeline to ensure Clúid can submit the report as part of the planning application as we know, as everyone does, that some of the land there is contaminated. Therefore, we are pre-empting that, will have the report done and are not waiting for someone to ask us about it as Clúid prepares for a planning application.

The community centre will obviously be integral and part of the application, but there is a shortfall in the cost regarding the moneys allowed under the approval from the Department. The strategy from DCC and Clúid will be to work closely with the regeneration board and, with all key stakeholders, look at all the strands of funding available to bridge that gap to make sure that vital part of the amenities happens in Labre Park, not just for the residents there but those who have left Labre Park and the greater community in the surrounding area.

The next step is to meet with BTAP on Friday to discuss the revised plan. Then we are meeting with the Department on 27 February to discuss the clarifications and the revised plan. We are going to call a Labre Park board meeting, and then, most importantly of all is to communicate and consult the residents of Labre Park. To answer the Deputy's question on an indicative timeframe and where we are at at the moment, the CAS 2 funding application submission, after meeting with the Department, will be February 2024. We will wait for the Department to come back with a funding decision, it is hoped by April 2024. We will do a Part 8 pre-application with our internal departments running in conjunction with that. We will not have approval from the Department but we will run in conjunction.

It is to be hoped that when the approval comes, the pre-Part 8 will have been done internally. We will pre-empt anything that comes in that regard. We will then go to the Part 8 planning application stage in April 2024. A Part 8 application takes approximately 20 weeks, which will be September 2024. A detailed design will be ready in November 2024. Clúid Housing will apply for CAS 3 funding in December 2024, for which there will hopefully be approval by February 2025. The stage 3 tender will be in February 2025, the CAS 4 funding application will be in April 2025, and CAS 4 funding approval will be in June 2025. With all going according to plan, we hope to start on site in July 2025 for the residents of Labre Park.