Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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We are meeting representatives of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to discuss the measures involved in addressing infrastructure bottlenecks in the supply of housing. I am pleased to welcome from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Mr. Garret Doocey, deputy general secretary; Ms Karen Kenny, senior planning adviser; Mr. Mark Macaulay, housing activation office; Mr. Peter Lambe, housing activation office; and Mr. Brian Kennedy, housing activation office.

Witnesses are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice that they should not criticise or make charges against any person or entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable, or otherwise engage in speech that might be regarded as damaging to the good name of the person or entity. Therefore, if their statements are potentially defamatory in relation to an identifiable person or entity, they will be directed to discontinue their remarks. It is imperative they comply with any such direction.

I remind members they will be afforded six-minute speaking slots for questions and answers, with a second round of questions and answers, if they wish. I invite Mr. Garret Doocey to make the opening statement.

Mr. Garret Doocey:

I thank the Cathaoirleach and members of the committee for the invitation to appear before the committee today.

By way of introduction, I am the deputy secretary general within the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage with responsibility for housing activation. I began this role at the beginning of March this year and my focus since taking up the position has been on supporting the work of the office and strengthening engagement with key partners responsible for delivering housing enabling infrastructure.

I am joined today by a number of colleagues from the housing activation office within the Department, including Karen Kenny, senior adviser in the Department, who has been leading the development of the office since its establishment last year. I am also joined by colleagues seconded to the office from infrastructure agencies and the local government sector, including Mark Macaulay seconded from Uisce Éireann, Peter Lambe from ESB Networks, ESBN, and Brian Kennedy seconded from Limerick City and County Council, all of whom joined the housing activation office between June and September 2025. Our team also includes colleagues from Meath County Council, the National Transport Authority, NTA, and Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII.

The housing activation office is built around a cross-agency model, bringing together the expertise of the organisations responsible for delivering critical infrastructure alongside officials from the Department with expertise in planning, programme management and project delivery.

As per the committee's invitation, I would like to start our discussion with a brief overview of the housing activation office, its responsibilities, its structures and our work undertaken to date.

The programme for Government recognised the need for acceleration of home building by unblocking infrastructure delays and by co-ordinating investment in servicing zoned land. In response, on 29 April last year, the Government agreed to the establishment of a new housing activation office. The office brings together six experts seconded from Uisce Éireann, ESBN, the NTA, TII and the local government sector, in addition to staff from the Department with expertise in planning, programme management and administration.

The role of the office is to accelerate the delivery of infrastructure required to unlock housing development and to identify and resolve structural or procedural barriers that delay housing delivery on the ground. Housing delivery is inherently complex and depends on many stakeholders including local authorities, utilities, State agencies, developers and Departments working together effectively.

While local authorities are working to zone more land for housing, infrastructure constraints relating to transport, water, wastewater, electricity and other enabling infrastructure can often delay or prevent development from progressing on these lands. The housing activation office was established to address this challenge by bringing together the relevant agencies and expertise in one place, improving co-ordination and ensuring that infrastructure delivery aligns with housing delivery.

The work of the office depends on strong collaboration across Government and with the wider housing sector. To support this, two key co-ordination forums were established in late 2025, namely, the housing activation delivery group and the housing activation industry group. The delivery group brings together senior representatives from Government Departments, infrastructure agencies and local government to ensure that infrastructure investment and delivery is aligned across the public sector. The industry group provides a structured forum for engagement with industry and delivery partners, ensuring that the perspective of those delivering housing on the ground informs policy development and implementation. Both groups have already met twice since November 2025 and will continue to meet on a regular basis to maintain momentum and address any emerging challenges.

The work of the office is also closely linked with the accelerating infrastructure task force led by our colleagues in the Department of public expenditure. That task force is examining how major infrastructure projects across the State can be delivered more efficiently. The experience and insights gained through the work of the housing activation office, particularly in identifying infrastructure barriers affecting housing sites, feeds directly into this wider Government effort to accelerate infrastructure delivery.

Since becoming operational last year, the office has undertaken significant work to build a clearer picture of key sites with potential for large-scale housing development nationwide and the infrastructure required to unlock them. The office has engaged extensively with all 31 local authorities, as well as with the Land Development Agency, infrastructure providers and other key delivery partners. Through this engagement, the office is identifying infrastructure constraints affecting housing sites nationwide and is working collaboratively with relevant agencies to resolve them. This work has also informed the development of a broader programme of investment in housing enabling infrastructure.

The new housing plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities 2025–2030 announced a new housing infrastructure investment fund, HIIF, as a key measure to support the Government’s overall target to deliver 300,000 homes by the end of 2030. This was a key milestone in the work of the office, which will manage this fund within the Department. The housing infrastructure investment fund is a €1 billion fund that provides direct investment in public infrastructure needed to unlock housing in towns and cities across Ireland. It represents the largest dedicated investment in housing enabling infrastructure announced in Ireland for many years. Its core objective is to support direct investment in the infrastructure required to unlock housing sites, including transport infrastructure, water and wastewater services, electricity connections and other enabling infrastructure. Importantly, the fund is designed to complement the investment already being made by other Departments and infrastructure agencies, thereby ensuring that investment across Government is co-ordinated and focused on housing delivery.

The first call under the housing infrastructure investment fund opened on 21 January 2026 and closed on 27 February just gone. This initial call focused on delivery-ready infrastructure projects that have the potential to activate housing development in the near term. A total of 138 applications were received from across 30 local authorities, as well as the Land Development Agency, reflecting strong engagement across the wider sector. The office team is currently assessing these applications and funding recommendations will be brought forward shortly in accordance with the governance arrangements for the fund.

Alongside the work of the housing activation office, colleagues in the Department continue to monitor a broad range of indicators relating to housing delivery, including planning permissions, commencements and housing completions. Recent data indicates a strengthening pipeline of residential construction activity. For example, the latest figures from the Dublin housing supply pipeline show a 24% year-on-year increase in active residential units under construction across the Dublin region. This demonstrates that there is significant housing activity under way. The role of our office is to ensure that infrastructure constraints do not become a barrier to this pipeline progressing.

While the initial focus of the housing activation office has been on local activation, identifying specific infrastructure constraints and unlocking individual sites, the office is also moving into a more strategic phase of work. This includes developing a national understanding of infrastructure requirements and identifying where larger, more transformative infrastructure investments will be required to support housing delivery at scale. Future calls under the housing infrastructure investment fund will look to broaden the scope to include a wider range of delivery partners and more complex infrastructure projects. The aim is to build a rolling programme of infrastructure investment that systematically addresses barriers to housing delivery and supports sustainable communities across the country.

In conclusion, the housing activation office was established to ensure that infrastructure does not act as a barrier to housing delivery. In our first year of operation, the office has built strong partnerships across Government and the infrastructure sector, developed a clearer national picture of infrastructure constraints, and launched a significant new infrastructure fund to support housing activation. As this work continues, the office will play an increasingly important role in aligning infrastructure delivery with housing development and in supporting the scale of housing delivery required in the years ahead, to ensure the Government achieves its goal of 300,000 homes delivered by 2030. I thank the Cathaoirleach again for the invitation to appear before the committee and we look forward to engaging further with members and answering their questions.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Mr. Doocey. Before I call Deputies McCormack and Neville there are just two quick questions that were brought to mind from Mr. Doocey's opening remarks. Local authorities have a key role in this. At this point, as we sit here today, how many local authorities have publicly advertised variations to their county development plans for the additional zoning that is required? How many are at that stage?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

I will ask my colleague Ms Kenny to come in on that.

Ms Karen Kenny:

There are 21 local authorities that are either through the process or are in the process of varying plans. The other local authorities are in progress in terms of getting to the stage where they will undertake-----

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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How many have completed their plan?

Ms Karen Kenny:

I have engaged with colleagues on the planning side, my former colleagues, and they are saying that 21 are either in the process or have completed. I do not have the number for those that are complete, which is probably much smaller, but we can get that for the committee.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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I ask this because when we talk about "in the process" that can be an initial discussion and it could be a long time before it gets to the public display. I would love to know how many of the maps are out there and publicly advertised? As to how many are actually completed I would not think there would be too many yet. There is a timeline after that of maybe two to three months for reviewing it and preparing a report for the chief executive, and then he or she brings it to the local authority. It is probably a three-month period there and but there can be quite a period prior to that in looking at all the urban areas to decide where is suitable, and in getting submissions before the council even puts it out there. If some of those plans are still in that category and have yet not gone the full way, then they are months away. The witnesses can understand why we ask that question.

There is another question that springs to mind. Please tell me if my figures are right. Mr. Doocey spoke about the new housing infrastructure investment fund. Am I right that he mentioned the figure of €1 billion?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

Yes.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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That is to facilitate 300,000 new homes by the end of 2030. This is an average of €3,000 per house. That does not seem a big figure. That is less than 1%. Are my figures right there?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

It is important to note that this €1 billion is additional to the billions upon billions of euro that the Government is investing through the national development plan to support housing enabling infrastructure generally. Consider transport investment, whether it be roads, rail or active travel. That funding is all sitting outside of that €1 billion. There are also equity investments in the energy grid and the energy companies. That investment being put in again amounts to billions upon billions of euro. This is matched with the water infrastructure. That is all sitting outside of that €1 billion, which is a complement to those existing investment programmes. It is really designed to address issues, maybe to smooth some funding issues that might arise and to support the wider investment programme.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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That is specifically in housing. What is that fund geared for? What is that €1billion geared for and what specifically can it be drawn down for?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

Any kind of infrastructure that is-----

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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By the local authority or is it open to Uisce Éireann or other people to draw it down for what they want?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

The way the fund is designed is that the first call is targeted at local authorities and the Land Development Authority, LDA. The call went out and projects have come back in from local authorities and the LDA. I will not talk about specific projects - they are all being assessed - but the type of projects that are coming back are mostly in the space of road infrastructure. There is a smaller number of water-related projects that have come back in but it is largely road infrastructure.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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In other words, in an expanding town, for example, if we want 500 new houses we have to have a road-----

Mr. Garret Doocey:

Linking up if it can-----

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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And it must be linked to housing.

Mr. Garret Doocey:

It has to be linked to housing. There has to be a direct link to-----

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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A long-standing planned inner relief road that might not generate housing is not going to cut it.

Mr. Garret Doocey:

Colleagues in the Department of Transport will be happy to fund that one, a Chathaoirligh. We are funding ones that will enable them to unlock a site.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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I think Mr. Doocey understands what is going on at local level. I ask just to get a feeling of that fund. Mr. Doocey mentioned the other utilities and that their funds are helping things other than housing. Is there any way the Department can come back to us with a kind of a global figure from those other agencies? If we are spending €4 billion through the other agencies, that is perhaps €12,000 per house, because if the office's funding was the only one it means €3,000 per house and that is going nowhere.

Mr. Garret Doocey:

I agree. That is no problem.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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Does Mr. Doocey get where I am going with this?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

Yes.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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It seems like a big figure but when we divide it by 300,000, it is not that big.

Mr. Garret Doocey:

There is a graphic I have in my head, but unfortunately I cannot draw from memory the numbers that are on it, which does exactly that. It pulls from the NDP the actual housing enabling figures that have been determined.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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Will Mr. Doocey send that on to us?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

We will.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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Thank you.

Tony McCormack (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the witnesses, including the group from the housing activation office, for coming in and for the opening statement. We hear a lot about structures. In his opening statement, Mr. Doocey mentioned the co-ordination of different groups and their strategies.

People across the country are looking for new homes because in a lot of cases they are actually waiting for them and the real test of any new initiative is delivery on the ground. Infrastructure is now widely recognised as one of the biggest barriers to building houses. Today I want to focus on what has changed, what will change in the future and how progress will be measured.

On delivery and accountability, the housing activation office has identified infrastructural constraints nationwide. Will the Department outline specific timelines and accountability mechanisms to ensure these barriers are removed rather than simply documented? What power does the Department, as the overseer of this, have over the other State agencies to make sure any bottlenecks or anything that is causing the issue or the hassle with providing housing will be sorted out? With regard to the likes of Irish Water, the ESB, grid infrastructure and the Department of Transport, what powers does the Department have to be able to put the pressure on them? We talked about that extra €1 billion infrastructure fund. That €1 billion housing infrastructure fund is described as the largest dedicated investment in years. How many homes does the Department expect this will allow to be activated? I know it is talking about putting in roads to be able to open up lands that will be available then to be zoned for housing and will allow houses to be built. How many houses will be built as a result of the infrastructure built with that €1 billion?

On the co-ordination and bottlenecks we spoke about, given that housing delivery depends on multiple agencies including utilities, transport bodies and local authorities, what structural changes beyond co-ordination forums have been introduced to prevent delays caused by fragmented decision-making? If we talk about fragmented decision-making, that is in the past where bodies have worked in silos instead of together. How will the Department be able to co-ordinate all of those going forward?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

I will take the last question first because it links back to the first one. Regarding structural changes, improving co-ordination and speeding up delivery generally, I mentioned in the opening statement and it is important to state again that the work we are doing is not in isolation. This committee will no doubt have heard from colleagues in the Department in public expenditure who are working on the accelerating infrastructure task force. An action plan, which the committee will be familiar with, is being published. We are involved in the implementation of that in looking to cut out timelines, improve processes and reduce the overlapping regulatory burdens, etc. All of that, which is designed to speed up how the State delivers infrastructure, will absolutely have a positive benefit in the delivery of housing as well. It is not within our remit as such but is something that we are feeding into. It has a direct benefit for us and will speak to the points the Deputy has raised, including that latter point.

Structurally, then, specifically to us and going back to the Deputy's first question as well, I would point to the difference in this office as compared with previous initiatives that may have been introduced in this area or previous consideration that may have been given. One is evident by the composition of the team who are here today. Something I have noticed from my experience as a civil servant coming into this Department and being able to sit around with the team is having that multi-agency expertise in the room. The experts are not being invited in or being asked for their views on particular issues but are part of the actual team. That is definitely a welcome difference that will make a positive impact. The internal structure enables us to make more informed decisions and pull in then the relevant agencies by leaning on them through their colleagues who are working with us.

The other structural aspect is how we can work across silos, if you want to call it that, and across government. We have the groups established, as I mentioned. There is that housing delivery action group, which meets effectively quarterly, where the CEOs and the Secretaries General of relevant Departments are all brought in with the Minister. That is to cut across any of these issues that might arise. We hope they will not arise to that level, given the nature and composition of the team we have here, but if there are those issues, they can be escalated at that delivery action group and resolved at that. There has been some consideration and long debate about the housing activation office and what form it might take. We are not a statutory body and, therefore, the implementation and how we go about our business involves using the statutory powers of those bodies that are in existence. Through the structures that have been put in place, we will get that co-ordinated and collaborative approach that will enable us to deliver on the ground.

The Deputy asked about the number of housing units. That is a really good question and something we are reflecting on ourselves in terms of what our impact will be towards that 300,000 overall ambition of the Government. As the Deputy can tell from my answer, the figure is not one we have definitively landed on. In terms of the first call, however, which the Cathaoirleach raised in his question as well, we are asking any project that is coming into us how many units it can unlock. With the local activation coming through we are getting a picture of what this first call of this first tranche of funding could do. We alluded to this in the opening statement as well. As we move to more strategic activation, the potential for our fund sitting alongside the wider NDP funding can have an impact in terms of tens of thousands of units but it goes back to the point the Deputy raised around ensuring co-operation, alignment and co-ordination. It is on that strategic activation piece that we can have a transformative impact. How we quantify it is something we will be looking to develop. I hope that at future meetings to be able to come back to the committee with a tangible answer. Right now, at the end of the first call, we will have a housing unit number against any funding we are releasing, but we are in the assessment process at the moment.

Tony McCormack (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister and the Department of housing have done a really good job. Obviously, we would love to build more houses. Last year, with 36,000 units built, the highest ever since records started, it is a fantastic step in the right direction and we will move further on to try to achieve our targets of 60,000 per year this year. I am buoyed by the enthusiasm of developers getting on board now, wanting to build houses and wanting more zoned land. In my area in Offaly, and from talking to colleagues in the rest of the country it seems to be the same, there is a huge appetite from developers to get out there and build houses. Obviously, that is very good but the infrastructure is the problem. With that extra €1 billion in the infrastructure fund, local authorities will now be able to target areas and put in roads and whatever infrastructure is required. I thank the witnesses for their responses.

Joe Neville (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the witnesses from our housing activation office for coming in today. I am quite taken with the level and breadth of their experience across different Departments and sectors. The line-up in the group they have established is very good. I will ask shorter questions and may go off in different directions, just so the witnesses know that if I am interrupting it is not for the sake of interrupting.

What do the witnesses see as the defined role of a housing activation office, even in a very short answer? Is it to link in with other groups or does it see itself as its own body or a kind of fixture? How would the witnesses define the housing activation office? These things take shape. What have they seen themselves?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

I think that last point is important. It is going to evolve fundamentally as we get up and running properly but if we go back to the terms of reference of the office when it was established, there were two strands to the work programme. One was local activation. That really is the element of what is being undertaken in this first call whereby we go out to local authorities, and colleagues had engagement prior to Christmas with local authorities, seeing and hearing on the ground locally where the sites they would like to activate were and where the barriers were. That is the local activation piece of the work programme. Then there is the second strand that was published in the terms of reference, which is around strategic activation. That is where you move it on then to more transformative, large-scale potential sites for housing delivery. The role is really split across those two.

Joe Neville (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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That is very well set out. It is micro and macro in effect. We will use Celbridge as an example. There may be a need for a bridge to open and it is about how we move that along. I do not want to keep using examples from north Kildare but it might also concern how we open, say, the Confey section in Leixlip. That is a broader section potentially with a more complex road need. Is the office working with local authorities or would it see itself as also working with developers who might be looking to develop? Is it a broad sweep whereby the office is working with both sides?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

The first call on this local activation stream was targeted at local authorities and the LDA. We are looking at how we might broaden out future calls to include wider delivery partners, including potentially working with the private sector. Again, I would emphasise the strategic activation piece. That is probably more looking at the likes of transport-orientated development sites that could deliver tens of thousands of units. That is working with local authorities, the LDA, transport agencies, etc., and identifying where those areas of potential are and ensuring that infrastructure is not a barrier to the delivery of housing at those sites.

Joe Neville (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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What sort of complications are there? Is there a trend developing where we might be seeing barriers?

Is it bureaucracy, administration or a lack of planning? Is it Uisce Éireann? I do not want to call out any one group, but is it wastewater in one area or-----

Mr. Garret Doocey:

As I said, the first call that came back, which is really in a local activation space, identified road infrastructure as being the primary barrier. There are some water infrastructure issues and one or two other examples of issues with other types of infrastructure, but it has largely been road infrastructure. I know from previous experience when I wore a different hat that the question of how many houses would be unlocked with a particular road was not a criterion when investment proposals in the roads programme were assessed. When the Department of Transport assessed projects that came in, housing delivery in and of itself was not a criterion for funding. I understand that is being addressed within the Department of housing. However, this means there are certain roads on which local authorities just have not been able to get traction in terms of getting funding for them. That is where the engagement with the likes of us comes into play because we are solely focused on housing activation.

Joe Neville (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Some element of the urban regeneration and development fund, URDF, would have gone down that route, but it obviously had a much wider scope. I know the URDF has been changed, but does Mr. Doocey see all of that moving towards the housing activation office? To use the bridge in Cellbridge as an example, would funding come from the housing activation fund because it would help with opening up land as well as having a link road? Once again, I am only using that as an example because it is so relevant.

Mr. Garret Doocey:

It is a good example to use. If it is infrastructure that fundamentally unlocks housing at a particular site or sites, then it is one that very definitely falls within our remit. The URDF previously included projects like that but, as the Deputy acknowledged, it was a much wider scheme. It has evolved and is now the towns and cities regeneration investment fund, and a call on that is out there as well. If a project is solely dedicated to unlocking a site for housing delivery, then it is very much within our bailiwick.

Joe Neville (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Mr. Doocey was before this committee in his previous role discussing the transport side of things and something else that was close to his heart was DART+ South West. There is a plan for housing along that route, across from Lucan and all the way down to Sallins, but there have been delays. It is coming through a completely different Department, but will the housing activation office have an influence on that? Does it see itself operating solely within its own remit or will it also help, assist and advise other Departments? Will it operate very much in its own sphere?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

No. DART+ South West is a massive project and, as we know, its delivery is first and foremost inherently linked to the delivery of DART+ West. That needs to go ahead to allow DART+ South West go ahead. However, a project like DART+ South West, which is linked to large-scale housing delivery, is something that we are interested in speaking to colleagues in the Department of Transport about to understand what might be required and how we could assist. While we can assist with multibillion euro projects like DART+ South West, we cannot deliver them.

Joe Neville (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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When a new group is set up, it is important that people know what its terms of engagement are, including politicians and stakeholders. Who are the office's stakeholders? Who will be coming to the office with problems? Will it be local authorities looking for help? Will it be the Department? Will it be developers or even politicians? We all have examples. I am sure the members here know of estates where the contractors may have an issue with Uisce Éireann, or where the ESB might need a push to get sites open because the houses have been ready for the past six months. Will the office fix individual issues like these, or will it try to get the groups to resolve the issues themselves, almost as an unblocker? Does Mr. Doocey see the office having a role like this?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

We are here to assist in removing barriers to delivery. At the same time, in the case of individual projects within, say, an Uisce Éireann water programme, the first port of call will be Uisce Éireann. We are there to assist in the background through the structures that have been established. As I mentioned, there is the delivery group, which comprises the CEOs, the estate agencies and the relevant Secretaries General, and then there is the industry group as well, which brings in the private sector partners. We can act as a facilitator, an enabler or a mediator if issues arise, but in terms of specifics-----

Joe Neville (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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The office does not want to get bogged down.

Mr. Garret Doocey:

First and foremost, they have to be addressed on the ground by the relevant agency.

Joe Neville (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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The office will have more of a strategic or forward-looking role.

Mr. Garret Doocey:

On the strategic piece in particular, that is where we are looking to get to in looking ahead and ensuring that the alignment we can provide means there will not be the types of barriers that are arising right now. If we can get to that place, we will be in a good place.

Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I welcome the witnesses, one of whom I know very well. The housing activation office, as it was constituted by the Minister, is different from what was in the housing commission report, and it evolved from that. In terms of its remit, does the office see itself as an advisory committee or an executive body?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

I certainly would not categorise us as an advisory body. We are here to roll up our sleeves and get on with the job of assisting with infrastructure delivery on the ground. It is definitely not an advisory body.

Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Given that it is not underpinned by legislation, does the office have adequate powers of compellability?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

I recognise the perspective that a legislative backing to any agency, body or office gives it a certain strength. On the other hand, the work we are doing crosses so many different boundaries that the legislative underpinning for it would be massively complex and would take a significant amount of time to develop. The strengths we draw upon are the statutory powers of each and every agency and Department that we work with and indeed are within our office as it stands today. We have the benefit of their statutory powers from already being in existence, as well as the fact they are working alongside and with us. At this stage, the structures that have been set up mean that we are ready to hit the ground running and can proactively address barriers that have been identified to us. It also means we do not have to wait 12, 18 or 24 months for a piece of legislation to be debated, discussed and agreed, etc. There is also a benefit to the non-legislative status that we have.

Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
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If we look at the way the LDA was constituted, however, that was set up first on an interim basis and then put on a statutory footing. There is an argument that the office could be underpinned by legislation while allowing it to get on with its work as it is at the moment. Does the office have adequate powers to compel the different external stakeholders to do what they need to do in order for us to reach our housing targets?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

I think time will tell. We feel assured as officials and as an office following the engagements we had our relevant stakeholders. They have all signalled their strong desire to co-operate and collaborate with the office and are all determined to work with the Government to achieve its target. As I sit here today, am I satisfied? Yes, I am satisfied. However, as the Deputy knows, time will tell.

Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Roughly speaking, when will we have a national pipeline for zoned land and when will we have the housing delivery action plans from the 31 local authorities?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

As far as I am aware, the intention is that we will have both by the end of the year. If I am wrong, we will clarify it during the course of the meeting. The Minster wrote to local authorities in February of this year to remind them of the timelines regarding zoning.

Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
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What has been the office's feedback from local authorities that are maybe resisting that? Why are they resisting it? What is the office hearing back? A minority of local authorities have been good and did the variation quickly, but a lot of them seem to be dragging their heels on this.

Mr. Garret Doocey:

I am not directly involved in that area, but among 31 local authorities, there will obviously be a natural variance in the progression of work programmes and work streams. At the end of the day, the adoption of it is a reserved function for elected members within the local authoritiesl. There is always going to be a bit of variability in the implementation of things like that.

Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I want to ask Mr. Doocey about utilities and issues around the funding frameworks. As we have discussed in this committee and as has also been raised at other committees, utility providers feel they would benefit from a multi-annual funding framework to be able to plan and deliver critical infrastructure. How important would that be to the work the housing activation office does?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

There are two aspects to multi-annual funding. I think this came up the last time I was in front of this committee, when I was in transport. The first of the two aspects is having sight of a multi-annual profile. If I have a five-year profile available to me, it will at least give me an indicative sense of the allocations being made. The second aspect of multi-annual funding is having the freedom to move a year 5 project cost if it arises in year 2. It is important to be able to move the funding from year 5 to year 2 in order to address such an eventuality without it eating into your year 2 project costs. On the first aspect, with the publication of the NDP review having sight of a five-year profile is relatively standard across the public investment and public capital expenditure programme at the minute. On the second aspect, that is much more difficult to do for centrally funded and Exchequer-funded organisations and Departments because of various issues relating to how we manage public money that ultimately go to the Constitution, being honest. It needs to be recognised that utilities are funded in a different way. ESBN, for example, is not reliant on the Exchequer at all. It has its own funding, albeit the State has injected additional equity funding to allow it to borrow more to fund its activities. It is operating in a completely different space. Uisce Éireann is in a slightly different space - it is a mixed model because it has some commercial money coming in from the commercial entities it engages with, but there is obviously a huge amount of Exchequer money going into it on an annual basis as well. The transport agencies, which are purely funded from an Exchequer basis, have the multi-annual profile but do not have the freedom that ESBN has to move a year 5 project cost into year 2 while still retaining the year 2 moneys.

Ollie Crowe (Fianna Fail)
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I thank our guests for coming in this afternoon. When I was speaking to colleagues recently, the issue of medium-sized towns accessing funding was raised. Obviously, the urban and rural regeneration funds are typically aimed at larger areas. Many tier 2 towns around the country that cannot access this funding could enhance their facilities if they received some funding which would help them to handle the population growth in their particular areas. Is Mr. Doocey's office considering this topic? If so, has it identified gaps where towns with populations of between 5,000 and 10,000 are being overlooked despite having zoned lands and development potential? Is there any action the office can take to help to ensure medium-sized tier 2 towns are not disadvantaged in accessing infrastructure funding, particularly where there is clear potential for housing growth?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

I thank Senator Crowe for that. When we issued call 1 in January and February, we did not include any population threshold that has to be observed by a local authority putting in an application to us. It related purely to the housing delivery potential of the application they were putting in. The population of the town was irrelevant to us in call 1. That is an important thing to note for the specifics of our own funding call. The URDF, which Deputy Neville brought up earlier, has been renamed and changed into a new funding programme called the towns and cities infrastructure investment fund or programme. The population threshold that applied to the URDF, which was 10,000, has now been dropped to 9,000. I am not sure if the rural regeneration and development fund is being renamed, but it applies to towns below that threshold so there is another opportunity there as well.

Ollie Crowe (Fianna Fail)
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I thank Mr. Doocey for that clarification. Another issue that was raised was the impact that enhanced wastewater systems would have on particular villages, such as Corofin, Craughwell and Clarinbridge in my own county of Galway. There is scope for additional housing estates in such locations if wastewater systems are put in place. For example, funding of €22.9 million has been allocated to Craughwell and Clarinbridge. The local authority is waiting on an 8% contribution, which you would think should be manageable, but there is still a delay on it. To what extent will this be prioritised under the housing infrastructure investment fund? Would it be possible to draw up a plan to identify villages where such upgrades could make a significant impact in housing delivery?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

There are two aspects to that. First, under call 1 it was open to any local authority to put forward a project to us for potential funding, as long as it was linked to housing delivery. If the examples the Senator has given had come into us, they would have been assessed and would have potentially been eligible for funding, as long as they were linked to housing delivery. The second thing to reference is that Uisce Éireann was allocated additional moneys as part of the NDP review last year. Part of that funding is specifically ring-fenced to enable the organisation to deliver additional capacity on the network to enable housing. That would potentially speak to projects such as those the Senator has mentioned. Most recently, the Government noted that developer-led infrastructure is now a feature of the water programme. For smaller schemes in smaller towns, developer-led infrastructure might be an avenue that could unlock housing.

Ollie Crowe (Fianna Fail)
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That is okay, Chair. I will leave it at that for now.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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I had one or two questions while I was listening here. With the scale of money we are talking about, the target is 300,000 houses by the end of what year?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

2030.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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Is that achievable?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

You would have to look at the positivity that was referenced earlier in one of the Deputy's contributions. Last year, we had a record number of housing completions, which was a positive step in the right direction.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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It was a record number over the past couple of years, but it is not a record number in house building in Ireland.

Mr. Garret Doocey:

No. It is a record number over the past couple of years. The Chair is right to correct me on that. Nonetheless, it is a step in the right direction. Permissions are moving in a positive direction. Commencements are moving in a relatively positive direction, albeit there has been a drop-off over 2025 as a whole, compared to 2024. This probably reflects the development levy waiver. In the past six months there has been an increase in commencements, which is also positive. There are positive things happening off the back of various initiatives introduced by the Government. As officials in the Department, we are wholly seized by the priority afforded by the Government to delivering 300,000 houses. That is our target.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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The witnesses have given the target, but out of that 300,000 target, how much is expected this year, next year and the following year? Is it going to be backloaded? In other words, will 200,000 houses be expected to appear in two years? Does the Department have a target figure for each of the years between now and 2030?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

The NDP and the housing plan were clear in terms of giving an overall target, rather than an annual target, so that is what we are working towards.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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Surely the Department is set up to get under the bonnet. The plan sets out the Government target, but I presume the Department's job is to get under the bonnet to make this work. I would be surprised if Mr. Doocey could not say to me - the Department can send it on in writing, if necessary - what its target is for each of the next five years. Any business in Ireland has to have a target for the next four or five years. They cannot just hope they reach 1 million sales or €1 million in turnover in five years' time - they need to have a pathway for how they expect to get there in terms of numbers. That is why I am asking the question. I have not seen that pathway coming from anybody publicly yet. It is hard to believe the 300,000 target if somebody is not showing what is expected each year on the way to that target. Can the Department send us something on that?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

I think it is better if we come back to the committee in writing on that particular one.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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Does Mr. Doocey know where I am coming from on that?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

Yes.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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Generally, and it is only a round figure, I expect that about a third of the 300,000, or approximately 100,000, will be funded by the State through local authorities, approved housing bodies, AHBs, and Part 5s. That is my general feel of where we are at with the mix of public and private houses. Am I far off the mark there generally at present? Would two thirds of houses in Ireland be private sector houses and one third public sector houses? Is the proportion of public sector houses higher than that figure? Can the witnesses give me a feel for where that figure is at?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

I do not believe it is. I might ask Ms Kenny to come in on that.

Ms Karen Kenny:

I am just looking for the figures in my documentation, but my understanding is that of almost 36,000 units delivered last year, approximately 12,000 were between social housing delivery and direct affordable cost-rental, while there were other supports supporting some of the private delivery.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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When I referred to one third as a ballpark, I was not far off the mark.

Ms Karen Kenny:

That was last year's delivery. Obviously, there is a lot of work being done with the private sector to scale up investment from there. It is recognised that the State cannot invest in all the housing, but it is intended that there will be scaling-up on the private side, in addition to further scaling-up. I suppose the breakdown of that in terms of the national housing plan is-----

Mr. Garret Doocey:

I have something here. Over the 300,000 new homes out to 2030, there are around 72,000 expected in social homes and about 90,000 expected in affordable supports.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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So, slightly less.

The affordable houses are Government support. Can witnesses explain that for the public watching? We know social housing is through the local authority and the AHBs. Can Ms Kenny explain what affordable housing is for the public?

Ms Karen Kenny:

There are a variety of schemes and initiatives that operate on the affordable side. There are the affordable purchase and cost-rental schemes, and there are other schemes like the vacant housing grant and things like that which are also affordable supports. Some of that would involve the direct delivery of affordable housing through AHBs, local authorities and some of the other departmental schemes such as Project Tosaigh, which is an affordable purchase scheme. There are other schemes which operate within the private sector realm where the purchaser is supported to purchase a house.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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Before we get to where we are going, I like to know where we are starting from. Can the Department send us information for 2025 around how many of the houses that were completed in 2025 were under each of these schemes?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

Yes.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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Some of them might be new schemes or there might be none. I am asking if we could get something on that because I do not know the figures. Let us say that 300,000 is the target. Between social and affordable, did the 36% include both of those?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

Of the 300,000 target, 72,000 are expected to be social and up to 90,000 affordable. I will come back with the exact details.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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Approximately one third of the 300,000 will be State funded, be it social through local authorities or AHBs or through some of the other schemes. That is one third of the money for this. Houses are running at €400,000 depending on where you are. That is €40 billion of an investment in public and private sector housing over the next five years. If the Government is to come up with a third of that, it will be a phenomenal figure. Has the Department looked at those figures? Is that in the projection in the national development plan? How much is being provided for housing?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

We can come back to the committee with the detail on that, just as we committed to do earlier in terms of what level of expenditure within the national development plan is dedicated towards housing. The Cathaoirleach is right to identify that a huge amount of private investment will be required to hit those targets.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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Yes, the majority will be.

Mr. Garret Doocey:

A huge amount will be. The Housing Activation Office can support that, in terms of de-risking from a private investment perspective or a private developer perspective, by providing public infrastructure that unlocks lands and hopefully facilitates and accelerates the delivery of housing on those lands, be they social, affordable or private.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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Let us say a scheme goes into a local authority for 1,000 houses and most of them are built by the private sector. That is fine. That is a subsidy to the private sector to get the houses built because we all want houses built. Notwithstanding that, approximately one third of those houses will probably be social or affordable.

Ms Karen Kenny:

It would be 20% under the Planning and Development Act in terms of the Part V provision.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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In addition to the Part V provision, there would be some done directly by AHBs separately under the social. Am I right in saying that?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

That could be the case, yes.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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Some of those AHBs will be doing it on top of the 20% Part V provision. That is where I am coming from. Whether it may be 30% or 40%, I am not sure, but the funding for a very large proportion of that €40 billion will have to come from the public purse. Is that scale of money laid out anywhere? What is the Department working to? I accept I am throwing figures at the witnesses.

Mr. Garret Doocey:

We will come back with the detail but it is set out in the NDP. That is the Government's capital plan for the next five years.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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Yes, but you said you have not figured how much of that can be allocated towards housing. You said you had some sort of chart.

Mr. Garret Doocey:

We can come back to you with the detail on it.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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How will that match up? How does the chart you have that you will send on to us match up if there are 300,000 houses to be dealt with, approximately 100,000 of which will have to be funded by the public sector at an average of €400,000 per house because that is what houses are nearly running at? That is €40 billion. We made a big issue about the €1 billion fund, but I actually think the Government investment to cover its 100,000 houses is going to be €40 billion. In the whole scheme of things, is that figure anywhere or factored into anything? I am not saying it is not; I am saying I have not seen it.

Mr. Garret Doocey:

It is within the NDP so we can come back with the detail on it. It sets it out.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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It is fine having that target but I want to relate it back to funding in the NDP. In a nutshell, that is what I am asking. I do not think anybody has done that for the committee yet, but I expect the Department has it somewhere or you might have a bit of work. We are talking about billions of euros here. That is the big question. Is there money in place to fund these 300,000 houses? Is the 300,000 target achievable? Have we the skills in the workforce to do that? Over what period in years are we planning to reach that target? We know we are scaling up from a low figure but I am worried we will just have a figure for the last two years which will be whatever the balance to make the 300,000 is, without any concrete plans to achieve it.

Joe Neville (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Going back to the €1 billion funding that a call has been put out for, what are the timelines and when will that money be drawn down? Obviously it will have to be committed and set out, but when will it be drawn down and when will we have boots on the ground for that €1 billion?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

The €1 billion is allocated over a five-year period, as the Cathaoirleach was indicating in his opening comments. I should have made the point earlier that call 1 has been targeted at projects that can be substantially complete by 2028. There is a desire that this first call sees projects and boots on the ground, as Deputy Neville said, very quickly and that projects are substantially complete by 2028.

Joe Neville (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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That is interesting. Mr. Doocey said earlier that roads would be a primary consideration with this call. How much of it will end up being allocated to roads?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

We are only going through the assessment so I do not want to give any false information or pre-empt any decisions on it. However, certainly a significant number of the proposals coming into us relate to roads. We have to learn lessons from previous initiatives in this space by asking what the optimism bias is or what status a particular proposal is at. Does it have planning permission etc.? Have compulsory purchase orders been done? That is to make sure-----

Joe Neville (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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It is an intangible. It is a bit like the large-scale sports capital grants. The more set up the project is, the better chance it has of getting it. Roughly, what is the minimum amount and maximum amount that would be set with regard to scale? I ask to understand the scale of the projects. Is it that anything below €1 million is not on the Department's radar or anything above €20 million is not on the radar? Has the Department thought about that?

Ms Karen Kenny:

The projects that have come into us are probably in that ballpark. Some of the more significant schemes could be up to €30 million if they are very significant road projects. We are, under the first call, targeting quick delivery projects. They are projects at an advanced stage of design and planning. They would be within that range. Obviously, in areas that have had very significant growth over the last decade or so, the nature of the infrastructure tends to be more strategic because the easy wins have already been developed. In the east of the country or around the cities the projects are more strategic and larger in nature.

Joe Neville (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I imagine that is a bit like the relief road in Maynooth where there is a road going around so it can open up more houses.

Ms Karen Kenny:

Exactly. We have a number of projects of that scale that have come in seeking funding and support to progress.

Joe Neville (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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The witnesses have said they see the money being drawn down and the projects completed by 2028. From a more strategic perspective I want to move over to the Uisce Éireann side. What are the opportunities? Once again I will use County Kildare as an example. We often talk about Maynooth, Celbridge, Kilcock and these places which are kind of ready to go. However, often demand is actually coming from the communities themselves. What we find in the likes of Celbridge, Lucan and other areas is people say they are saturated with houses, but they need the other facilities and the infrastructure to go with it. However, there are then smaller villages and towns like Rathcoffey or Newtown outside Kilcock where people want just 40 or 50 houses.

They have the school and the GAA club but they do not have the housing coming into the areas. Will the Department play a strategic role in things like that as well with Uisce Éireann or would it say that is Uisce Éireann's responsibility and that the Department comes into play only after that?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

I do not know if we will completely say that is Uisce Éireann's responsibility, but at the same time I go back to the fact that the Government has allocated additional moneys to Uisce Éireann over the next five years to specifically allow it to invest in water infrastructure, be it wastewater or water infrastructure, to enable and facilitate housing delivery. That is a specific allocation that the Government has given to Uisce Éireann, which Uisce Éireann is working on as to where it will deploy that. Thanks to the secondee we have working with us, we are engaging with Uisce Éireann on the call 1 projects we see coming in to us as to how that fits with Uisce Éireann and, similarly, what ESBN's investment programmes are in order that we have alignment and a line of sight across all the different sectors and are all pulling in the same direction. Now, as we move into a more strategic phase, it is through the housing delivery action group, making sure that our investment programmes in the different sectors are focused on the North Star, which is whether this unlocks housing delivery.

Joe Neville (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Would the Department see itself as an umbrella-type link-up between them all?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

Yes.

Joe Neville (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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It is a matter of ensuring that local authority zoning is here. We know Irish Water has a plan for that and we know the Department of Transport has bridges and roads going into that area, so it will all get delivered.

Mr. Garret Doocey:

Ultimately, certainly to my mind, and I know this from talking to the Minister as well, we need to get to saying, "This is where the housing is going, this is where transport, energy and water are going and this is what the infrastructure and the investment programmes need to be directed toward", to ensure that that housing can happen where we are saying it will happen. In addition, all the infrastructure sectors need to do a protection renewal of existing networks. There is huge expenditure on that, but it is really about making sure that if we have decided as a Government, as a society and as an economy that housing is going in particular areas, the State infrastructure programmes recognise that and direct their investment programmes towards those designated areas.

Joe Neville (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I come with the Kildare perspective, where the Glenveaghs and the Ardstones are all doing business. They all want to do business because that is where they are all logistically set up and that is where all their teams are set up, whereas often we see that the issues when building houses are in places like Longford, Roscommon, maybe parts of Mayo and Donegal, maybe areas where those businesses are not developed. How do we ensure we have strategic plans for those places that ensure that private developers will be willing to go in and build so we are not just continually going into one specific area and not having the holistic picture set up for everyone?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

That all relates back to our planning and development system. We do have a well-developed planning and development system, a national planning framework in terms of balanced regional development being one of those national strategic outcomes, flowing through to the regional spatial economic strategies, then to the county development plans, and down to local area plans and the improvements that have been introduced to that system through the Planning and Development Act 2024. Then layered on top of that are the most recent requests of local authorities to zone more lands. That, ultimately, should guide us in terms of the plan-led development. Then, for us, if the plans say this is where the housing is going in, it is about making sure that our infrastructure delivery agencies are all aligned in ensuring that their investment programmes recognise that we need to enable the housing at these particular sites.

Joe Neville (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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My last question is just to tie this up in my own head. The Department is about linking up everyone, but what about from a zoning perspective? Does it have any role in pushing the local authorities? We will take as examples Offaly, Tullamore, Tipperary and Nenagh. They might need to expand. Would the Department see itself as having any strategic role in that way?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

In terms of the zoning, there is a statutory role for the Office of the Planning Regulator in ensuring alignment across plans, etc. That is really where that would fall into.

Joe Neville (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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That is grand. I thank the witnesses for everything on that.

Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I want to ask a couple of things to follow on from some of the stuff Deputy Neville said earlier about the infrastructure fund and transport-orientated development. Could Mr. Doocey go back to what he said about the Department of Transport and the criteria that are there in relation to funding transport-orientated development? I am even thinking locally. We have a train station that has been granted planning permission in Moyross, just outside Limerick. It is really important that we get that delivered because it is really important in order to get enough high-density housing there. There is no real blockage to it. It has planning, etc. It just does not have a source of funding at the moment, and there is a debate there as to who will fund it. Does this come across the Department's desk a lot in relation to the Department of Transport?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

I would not say specifically in relation to the Department of Transport. The Deputy does raise an important point, and it is one we sought to make in the opening statement. Our infrastructure fund is a complement to but not a substitute for existing investment programmes. Taking the example the Deputy has given, I know the Department of Transport published its sustainable mobility policy action plan for the next five years only a couple of weeks ago, and delivery of Moyross train station is explicitly called out in that action plan. That is an example of a project that, I absolutely agree with the Deputy, has the potential to unlock housing in that particular vicinity but is being funded and is part of an existing departmental investment programme. That is where that investment programme will support that particular project, I imagine, and there would be lots of other examples of that in different sectors as well. If there were potentially projects similar to that which could unlock housing delivery but are not currently being funded through existing investment programmes, that is definitely an opportunity on which we would wish to engage with any local authority, State agency or Government Department and see how we could assist in that particular-----

Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
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So is the Department's housing infrastructure fund almost like an evolution of LIHAF?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

Yes, an evolution of LIHAF is probably a fair way of describing it. I think one of the lessons that have been learned from LIHAF speaks to the point Deputy Neville made in his contribution about how sure we are in terms of local authorities telling us particular projects are at a particular stage and could be developed. That is where, again, we can lean on the project delivery expertise of the secondees we have brought in. Another learning from LIHAF is this alignment across the different sectors. Again, I speak to the composition of the housing activation office, whereby we are able to speak back to the likes of the water, energy and local government sectors and see how project A is linked into those other investment programmes. Again, that is a lesson learned from LIHAF which will hopefully improve this housing infrastructure investment fund.

Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
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There is another thing I wanted to ask about the housing infrastructure fund. Is there sort of risk there that it could favour the better resourced or the bigger local authorities? It is competitive. Has that been baked into the Department's evaluation of projects in any way?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

The Deputy raises a fair point. There is a perspective that if there are competitive funding calls, you disadvantage smaller local authorities. While there was a call for funding, I am not sure whether you would characterise it as a competitive call in the nature that that would typically be understood. We have invited in proposals from any local authority, and all of them will be assessed based on objective criteria and funding will be disbursed. I can see both sides of the argument. I do not necessarily see that disadvantage to smaller local authorities has been baked into the way we have constructed this particular call.

Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
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We have just had the heads of the new critical infrastructure Bill. How important is that Bill to the work the Department does?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

In terms of strategic activation and large-scale housing delivery, transport-orientated development is fundamental. If we can speed up decision-making processes around big infrastructure projects, it will absolutely have a positive benefit to activate housing at large scale. In terms of the more local activation, it will probably have a more limited effect, but at the strategic scale it can definitely have a very positive effect.

Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Is the Department finding more blockages at the consenting end of things or at the judicial end of things, or is it both, if that makes sense?

Mr. Garret Doocey:

It is probably a bit of both.

Joe Neville (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Some of the smaller councils are actually quite well funded for the sizes of their populations. Some of the larger ones with bigger, bursting populations actually can be the least funded ones.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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That is it. Good stuff. We will not do a county-by-county analysis here.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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You say it out loud, Deputy Neville.

Joe Neville (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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It is true.

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the witnesses for their contributions today and for assisting the committee in this important work. No doubt we will meet up and down as the time goes on. I ask that any information the members have requested that was not available today be provided to the committee within two weeks of today. If there are any issues with the supply of this information, I ask that the clerk be informed as soon as possible.

I take it there is no other business. That being the case, the meeting now stands adjourned until 15 April 2026.