Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Part 4, which covers section 40, gives effect to action 4.9 of Rebuilding lreland to amend the Housing Finance Agency Acts to enable the Housing Finance Agency to provide low-cost finance to higher education institutes for the purpose of providing student accommodation. In addition, as a new initiative identified in Rebuilding Ireland, the Housing Agency is to be provided with capital funding of €70 million, with the specific focus of acquiring properties from financial institutions for social housing nationally thereby increasing social housing delivery. As a support mechanism towards giving effect to action 4.9 of Rebuilding Ireland, provision is being made for the Housing Finance Agency to lend to the Housing Agency for this purpose, subject to obtaining the relevant ministerial consents and compliance with prevailing fiscal rules.

Part 5, comprising section 41, is aimed at enabling me, as Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, to make the required payment, to a maximum amount of €420 million, from the local government fund to the Exchequer, as envisaged in the Revised Estimates Volume for 2016. It is necessary to provide for the legislative underpinning of this proposed transfer of funding to the Exchequer by amending section 6 of the Local Government Act 1998.

I think Members will agree that this Bill contains a number of fundamental legislative measures emanating from the Government's Rebuilding Ireland plan, specifically the two pillars relating to building more homes and making our permitting and approval systems more efficient and improving the private rental sector in terms of supply and security. As I have already outlined, these are priority matters for the Government and for all the parties in this House.

I look forward to the contributions and suggestions from Members. I also hope to be able to introduce an amendment on Report Stage that is consistent with the new rental strategy once I get that approved by Cabinet. That is likely to be on Tuesday week. I hope others in this House will help to facilitate the process of getting that done because it is very important that if we make a decision on the rental market we have the capacity to implement that decision quickly rather than making an announcement and then having a long period before we can enact it. That is why the timing in terms of this legislation is important.

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