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

I take the point. It takes time to proceed from approval to the delivery and occupation of a social house. Obviously, the rapid build projects are an effort to try to make this happen faster. Some of the preparation and approval times in terms of Part 8 requirements for rapid build projects have been problematic. Once such a project moves to site, it moves a lot faster than a conventional build. That is why we are pursuing this approach. It is only part of the social housing delivery programme.

We are happy to give as much detail as anybody wants on what has been approved. What I have not been doing is trying to put into one basket many different projects to try to launch them with a big splash every few months. Instead, we try to get every project that is ready for approval through the system as fast as we can. We are approving projects almost on a weekly basis. We were doing so towards the end of last year. We can give a list of all the approvals that have been made.

One reason we have committed to quarterly updates on the Rebuilding Ireland programme is so people can see whether we have fallen behind on targets. If so, it will become self-evident. If it is seen that we are ahead on targets, the appropriate momentum will be gathered.

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