John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am not being critical; I am setting out what I feel. I am pleased to hear it, but as a committee we spent a considerable amount of time with the NTMA and the Department of Finance. Having met groups such as the Irish League of Credit Unions and others, we feel this model has greater potential. I acknowledge and accept that the Minister is saying it is a starting point. I agree that we have to start somewhere, but we felt it had significant potential.

My time is running out, but I want to finish on a specific point that I do not want to miss. The Minister has established a local infrastructure housing activation fund at a cost of €200 million. The report states it could deliver 15,000 or 20,000 housing units. I want to put a document on the record that was presented to the committee during our consultation. It clearly indicated that across the four local authorities in Dublin, 48,000 or 49,000 housing units could be developed without planning permission and local authorities had a deficit of about €160 million. The document should be specifically considered because the Minister is not addressing the issue that was presented to us with the amount of money he is spending.

The Minister should examine the information we received during our meetings. It is important that the deficit in infrastructure is front-loaded to allow private development and social housing on lands across the four Dublin local authorities.

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