Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

In respect of shared ownership and other schemes, the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government with responsibility for housing examines the thresholds for these schemes on an annual basis and continually adjusts them based on what is happening in the market. It is true that in the first half of this year, there was a very steep increase in prices in the third quarter, particularly in the second-hand market in Dublin. This increase has stabilised to great extent. The Minister of State will examine the figures, as he does every year.

Approximately 17,000 units will be delivered for various affordable housing schemes between 2007 and 2009. That is in line with what has happened in the past few years across a range of schemes. There are approximately six different national schemes administered by local authorities that assist people in that regard. Last year, we established the affordable homes partnership to add impetus to the delivery of affordable housing in the greater Dublin area, where price pressures, as the Deputy rightly pointed out, are greatest.

As well as producing some very good and easily understood information, particularly for young people and people on affordable housing, which sets out the various local authority papers and position in very clear language and has proven to be very helpful, the partnership group has advanced a number of projects. It has exchanged sites like Broc House for affordable housing and has continued with other schemes. It began with the Harcourt Street deal, invited proposals to bring forward additional land, mainly for affordable housing, provided high quality guidance on affordable housing schemes and produced a range of other initiatives.

Approximately 70 sites have been identified for State or local authority lands. There is an output from Part V, which has the potential to deliver a target figure of approximately 10,000 units. Members will have seen the information on Part V produced by the Department in the past few days which shows that far greater output is received from Part V as the old planning permissions have run through the system. As the Deputy will recall, changes were made to Part V because it was stated in this House and elsewhere that because Part V was so restrictive, it would stagnate the market when we needed to create supply.

The nucleus of Part V is working. The initiative has delivered and hopes to deliver several thousand units over the next few years. It is estimated that approximately 2,250 units will be provided under the initiative this year and that over 3,000 units will be provided next year. As Members can see from the information provided by the affordable homes partnership, the partnership has identified a large amount of housing, admittedly mainly apartments, that are within the range of affordable houses on the fringes of the greater Dublin area, which should certainly help the 44,000 household units referred to by Deputy Ó Caoláin. In addition — the Deputy did not raise this matter — there is provision this year for approximately €2 billion to be spent by local authorities on social housing, which is more than double the expenditure of six years ago.

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