Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputies MacSharry, Niall Collins, Cathal Crowe and Murnane O'Connor. I would like a response from the Minister of State during my time so I will be quick. The Minister of State referred to the micro and small business restart fund. Has the Department looked at other rateable organisations such as sports clubs and other community organisations, which are paying rates and have staff but cannot apply for that restart grant? It seems inequitable, given that they are ratepayers too and should be able to apply for those grants. To stay with local government matters, the Minister of State noted that rates have rightly been waived for this three-month period. I put it to him that we will have to do that for a longer period of time - potentially for the rest of this year - to give the SME sector, which is crucially important to this country, a chance to breathe. Have financial projections been carried out within the Department on potential lost revenue over those coming weeks? The Minister of State mentioned a figure of €260 million in that period. In that context, has the Minister or the Minister of State discussed a local authority recovery fund to compensate for that lost income? I want to record my sincere thanks to all local authority staff all over this country. I have had personal experience of them doing phenomenal work, from housing officers to biodiversity officers and those working in operations and sports. The whole lot of them have gone above and beyond. They have been part of our front-line response to this emergency and so we need to ensure they are funded.

To turn to housing, which is part of the Department's brief, 7,700 builds were targeted for this year between local authority and approved housing body, AHB, housing. Has the projected output within the social housing sector for the rest of this year been revised? The last time we had questions on housing, I mentioned that the construction industry was projecting that we would complete 18,000 units this year because of the Covid crisis and the slowdown. That has been further reduced to approximately 14,000, which is understandable but also shows the scale and challenge the next Government will face in ramping back up delivery of public, social and affordable homes. Has there been a revision in the projections on housing within the Department? What does the Minister of State believe will be delivered this year? As regards social housing sites that are back in action right now, what is in the pipeline for the rest of this year on the active sites that are up and running? Does the Minister of State think the capital envelope for local authority builds this year is secure enough to deliver the required housing for the rest of this year?

I raised the Rebuilding Ireland home loan a number of weeks ago. I am glad the Department is giving forbearance to mortgage holders who will not be charged interest in that intervening period. That is the right thing to do. I wish our financial institutions would do the same and I am ask them to do so. Does the Minister of State have an update on extending the forbearance measures for a further three months, should that be required?

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