Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have two brief questions. The Minister has said a number of times that funding is not an issue and that if local authorities bring forward more ambitious programmes than the ones they are currently pursuing, he will consider them. South Dublin County Council has budgeted to construct 600 new-build units. If it approaches the Minister and states that it wants to build twice that number, is he seriously saying that he will consider the proposal?

What is really killing local authorities is the length of time the approval process takes. For example, in Clondalkin this week we are starting to see the building of local authority houses the planning permission for which we, as councillors, approved at the start of 2014. Can the Minister give us an update on his commitment to shorten that four-stage approval process? We can have all the funding we want but if it takes 18 months to get bricks on the ground, it will cause problems for all of us.

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