Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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Unfortunately, it is a legal requirement under one of the national policy objectives of the NPF. There is an explicit NPF obligation that regeneration funding has to be linked to an increase in density, although that is very unhelpful. Even insofar as requiring no reduction in density, Dublin City Council has been told that is a requirement for specific developments. I know there is some discussion around whether it could have additional density on an adjacent site. That is fine, but it confuses the matter, which is that these flats have to be brought up to modern standards. I am raising this issue because it will be a challenge to spend the money if the projects keep getting knocked back. I am just asking the Minister to look at this situation again to see if more flexibility can be provided, if that is okay.

Turning to defects, obviously, there is a significant increase in funding in this area. I welcome that. The problem is that replies from the Minister to recent parliamentary questions show there has still been a modest uptake in the scheme. Obviously, there are still the ongoing delays in the interim funding for fire safety. It is now €165 million, which is up from last year's spending of €69 million, which is not insignificant. Knowing what the Minister knows about the pipeline of expenditure, how confident is he that the €165 million is going to be spent this year? On current trends, it does not look like it will be spent.