Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief because I am conscious that I am sharing my last three minutes with Deputy Duffy. I will make three or four brief points and leave the remainder of my time for the Minister.

We need to welcome the homelessness figures released recently. Obviously, it is not enough and there are still far too many families and individuals in homeless and emergency accommodation. Yet, since the Minister has taken office there has been a reduction of almost 2,000 in homelessness figures, which is welcome.

I commend the Minister on his voids programme, which delivered almost 600 houses in Cork city and county in 2020. My first question is whether the Minister envisages that the scheme will be rolled out again in 2022.

My next question relates to wind energy guidelines. In County Cork, there are several planning applications at present for wind turbines. I seek clarity and an update on the guidelines. The draft guidelines were published in 2017 and we are still waiting for the publication of the final guidelines. Does the Minister have an update on that?

As Deputy Bruton mentioned development and we are currently going through our development plan review in Cork county and city. I agree with the Members from the Opposition on one thing, which is that we need to be ambitious in these development plans. During my time on Cork County Council, we often spoke about active land management and how it needs to be incorporated into the strategy. We need to set ambitious targets and in my experience, we often see how land might be zoned for a lengthy period, often several decades, before it comes to the point of development.

I ask that the Minister consider talking to the local authorities and implementing that active land management strategy effectively. If people are sitting and hoarding land or waiting for it to appreciate, we need to entertain the prospect of possibly dezoning that land, looking elsewhere and zoning land that is available for development. It might not be popular to say, but it would be far more proactive and beneficial in the long term.

Finally, the Minister is undertaking a review of the HAP scheme. Is there any update on that or any intention to undertake that review? In addition, does he have any information on any new tenant purchase scheme?

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