John Cummins (Waterford, Fine Gael)

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter, as he has done previously. As I do, the Deputy recognises the importance of translating what we have approved in this House in the national planning framework into getting it implemented by local authorities in their development plans as early as possible. That is why the Minister, Deputy Browne, has written to local authorities telling them to prepare and start work on their variation processes. We will be writing to local authorities very shortly about their housing growth requirements for the interim years, up until the next revision of their development plans. We are engaging with the Attorney General on this matter. We want to ensure that any of the housing growth requirements that we give to local authorities are legally robust and stand up to scrutiny. The point made by the Deputy about local authorities being able to zone a sufficient amount of land in order to deliver much-needed homes for individuals and families is a key priority of the Minister and me. We have done an extensive amount of work on this issue with our planning officials. We want to get this right in order to ensure we have sufficient zoning of land to be able to provide houses for individuals and families in Wicklow and across the country.

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