Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I and the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, would be very happy if all involved could make this happen in 30 weeks. In some cases, it is possible to do it in 30 to 35 weeks.

In the private sector, if one asks a developer or builder today, and they look out and pick a new site and ask them how quickly they can be on site, they will say roughly 14 months to go through all the planning etc. We believe we can do it in 59 weeks. We have proven that. We want it done even faster with the resources that are there. I can assure the Deputy that the delays in our Department are dealt with. We have put an end to that and we can turn applications around quite quickly. The public procurement process which is set down by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, DEPR, on capital projects, that the Deputy's colleague was involved in, gets good value for money and is in place. It is a nine point process. We have it down to four stages and can turn this around quite quickly.

The notion that it would cost €500,000 per unit is wrong and not true and that was explained yesterday at committee. The average cost for a social housing unit is in or around €200,000.

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