Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

I also welcome all the students from Inver College. Hopefully they will be inspired by politics and what they see today. Robust exchanges are always important in the political system.

I appreciate what the Deputy has raised. I will provide clarity for her. The legislation she referenced was the general scheme of the conclusion of the IBRC special liquidation and dissolution of NAMA Bill 2024, which was published in July last year. The Deputy referenced pre-legislative scrutiny that was ongoing at the joint committee between its members and officials from the Department of Finance. It contained standard statutory provisions modelled on other similar legislation to ensure that when operations of one state entity are transferred to another, the employment rights of staff are preserved. This was included in the general scheme in case it was required, which is specified in this to apply to the transfer of a small number of staff from NAMA to a resolution unit in the NTMA to be established to manage any residual activity following the dissolution of NAMA. No decision has been made, as the Minister for Finance said yesterday, about who these individuals might be and discussions are ongoing with the NTMA. It is clear that the resolution unit will be much smaller in scale than NAMA was and, as such, it is not expected that the unit will require the transfer of the CEO role as it is currently constituted. Where staff who are not going to be in the resolution unit and who are not already made redundant by NAMA prior to the dissolution date are concerned, it is a matter for the NTMA as their particular employer. The general scheme sets out clearly that this provision is not complete, that discussions are "ongoing with the NTMA and it may be the case that no provision is needed in this Bill to facilitate staff transfers". The Government has not yet published the final legislation on this matter.

On the Deputy’s question on the housing activation office, it will be a really important office when it comes to addressing the barriers and constraints that exist at local level, for example. Yes, the nominated individual to whom she referred is not proceeding with that role. As such, the Minister for housing, Deputy Browne will come back to the Government about who it might be and what the appropriate expertise will involve in the context of the establishment of that office. It will be an important office to address some of the constraints and barriers at local level. We should all take that cross-party approach to addressing the constraints that impede the supply of housing at a local level. This is a proactive response from the Minister for housing to address the barriers and difficulties in some local authorities to try to synchronise and co-ordinate the delivery of local infrastructure. The strategic housing office will work and co-ordinate with the infrastructure division that I have established in my own Department so that we really accelerate and step up the ability to deliver infrastructure and housing supply across our economy.

The purpose of having an individual leading that is that we have someone with the appropriate level of expertise and leadership to really drive change and accelerate delivery in this area. The appointment of a head of office with an in-depth understanding will be critical to having the impact the office needs to have. In the interim, staff will be deployed from the Department of housing to step up the office. It will also involve seconding individuals from across the commercial State sector to accelerate delivery in the provision of infrastructure.

I have clarified the matter relating to the legislation. It was a general scheme. The legislation has yet to be published on that matter, and it may not require that provision as the NTMA works through the relative conditions with respect to people that exist in NAMA. We are stepping up the housing activation office and it will make a difference in the provision of housing supply, and we should all support that.

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