Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We have discussed this with relatives as well, and the Deputy knows that. I do not want to have an engagement that is too partisan but I believe what is going on is regrettable. I believe there is an electoral and definitely a political agenda associated with what is going on. There has been cross-party engagement on this matter for a long time. I can go back five, six or seven years in the more recent period.

Could Deputy Boyd Barrett give me or the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy O'Brien, the information on the family he mentioned? I will raise the issue with the Minister. There should be flexibility in assessing people, particularly a family of eight, for emergency housing accommodation. There should always be flexibility in whatever legislative framework exists.

On Deputy Kelly's point, the zoned land tax is part of the Finance Bill. It is a substantial part of it. In one year a very substantive proposal has emerged in the context of Housing for All that will make a difference, in the view of the Government, in getting housing and land developed.

It is probably the most substantive decision that has been taken and move that has been made in decades in respect of unused land. I will relay the views of the Deputy regarding what he perceives to be deficiencies on water connections to the Minister for Finance.

More generally, there are a number of work streams flow. The Secretary General of my Department chairs a group of Secretaries General in terms of implementation of Housing for All and, every quarter, the targets and progress on them will be published. The first quarter has been published, with ten of the 11 recommendations having been fulfilled. The second quarter will be published in January in terms of much more expansive and ambitious targets. The three key Secretaries General oversee issues in terms of what overall finance will be required to deliver the entirety of the plan, both public and private, and the working through of that. They also oversee the public service and what it takes to get the entire public service on board in respect of delivering Housing for All, which involves the ESB, EirGrid and Irish Water. There have been meetings already in this regard. The three Secretaries General chair the different work streams. The other issue relates to capacity and skills in terms of training up, apprenticeships and so on. There is a fairly significant implementation.

Deputy Calleary asked about this as well in terms of the various work streams that are headed up by a Secretary General who chairs each work stream and engages with the different State agencies and public authorities. For example, I refer to the effort to compile a database of land that the Land Development Agency can pursue to get houses built on land that is in the possession of, but not needed by, a Department or State agency so that we can get land utilised, particularly in urban centres, for housing. That is already under way at Heuston Station. There are plans afoot in respect of that whole area.

Deputy Murnane O'Connor raised a very important point. There is work under way in terms of innovation and how we can accelerate house construction. Prefabricated and modular housing is one aspect of that. It is used in the UK and to a degree here, as I saw when I visited the Intel site recently, in terms of industrial building. Prefabricated and precast structures and so on are a feature of construction in industry but, likewise, there have been some instances of their usage in housing. If a product is NSAI approved, then there is a role for it in certain circumstances.

Deputy Barry raised the issue of voids. He referred to a figure from before the pandemic. He ignored the significant impact of the July stimulus programme in the context of voids. Since the Government was formed, 6,000 voids have been brought back through additional resources being allocated. We are saying to local authorities that there is no excuse for leaving a house void. As soon as a property is empty, it should be reallocated. The Deputy mentioned rent pressure zones, RPZs. The Minister is bringing in legislation to reduce rental increases in RPZs to 2% or the rate of inflation, whichever is the lower.

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