Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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3. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if his Department has undertaken an audit of potential bottlenecks and undue regulatory burdens slowing down the planning process for building multi-unit housing developments such as apartment buildings or housing estates; the findings of this audit; and his plans to remove such blockages. [35580/16]

Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The Government has acknowledged on numerous occasions that the cost of building houses and apartments is a key issue in the holding back of supply. However, there appears to be no mention of an intention to undertake regular audits of construction costs in the Rebuilding Ireland document, despite it being one of the main recommendations of the Committee on Housing and Homelessness. That being the case, can the Minister inform the House whether he or his Department has carried out an audit of the cost burdens or impediments that are affecting the supply of housing? Will the Minister make it public to Members and allow us to analyse it in order to ascertain what measures and actions are necessary on the part of the House in order to improve supply?

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy has asked a slightly different question to the one that was tabled. I will respond to his comments. We are now working with the Housing Agency to put together an independent audit of build cost. The Deputy has requested that for some time and of course it makes sense to do it. I do not think we should rely on the Chartered Surveyors of Ireland, even though the report it compiled has contributed to the debate. It factored in over €60,000 of site value, a profit of 15% and so on. We need to have a genuinely independent process. The Chartered Surveyors of Ireland did an interesting job but we need to be seen to have an independent assessment of build cost that includes everything in order that we might have a benchmark to measure against in terms of our discussions on the cost of building and what is an affordable house and what is a reasonable price to expect in different parts of the country. We can then factor in land costs, etc., on top of that. We need to benchmark against the cost of building houses in other parts of Europe.

For example, we need to look at the costs of concrete in Ireland compared with other parts of Europe, which is a fair ask. That process is very much under way and has been for about one month.

Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister for his response. I welcome again the commitment of the Minister and the acknowledgement of this being a factor which has to be investigated independently, properly and authoritatively with a view to informing the market of the actual cost of construction, which heretofore nobody has been able to provide. This aspect was a major recommendation of the Committee on Housing and Homelessness. I welcome the Minister's commitment and his ongoing work to provide this.

Perhaps the Minister could inform the House when this might be first available and at what stage the reviews will take place thereafter. Will reviews be quarterly or half yearly? It is important to ascertain the impact of the amendment on, for example, a decrease of planning development levies, of certification costs and of VAT rates and a decrease in the costs of finance. It is not competitive when one has rates far in excess of what should be competitive rates of 3% 4% or 5%. We hear of mezzanine funds at 15%, 16% and 17%, within one of which the Government has a role, and that cannot continue. That is only part of the mix that will emanate from a report which will authoritatively and independently assess the costs of construction. Will the Minister indicate when it will first be available and when reviews will take place thereafter to analyse and see that costs are coming down?

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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We have been acting in trying to get down the cost of building a house. That is what the local infrastructure housing activation fund, LIHAF, is all about. It is also why we are making publicly owned land available in an effort to create joint public private partnerships and in getting affordable housing projects moving. This is why we are looking at a much more streamlined and efficient planning system for some of the larger housing estates, in order that there can be certainty around the timeline for decisions, which also has an impact on funding. We are also looking at the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, ISIF, with regard to on-site infrastructure investment at low cost. All these are being done.

To be fair, the core question Deputy Cowen has been asking for some time is whether we can get an independent assessment of the complete picture with regard to the construction costs for a house or an apartment complex. We have asked the Housing Agency to co-ordinate this and it is putting together a task force. I suspect we will have it in the first quarter of next year. Once there is a template to assess that, it should not be difficult to reassess it periodically to see whether elements of our construction industry are too expensive and if we can deal with that. When we have that list itemised, I believe it will be easier to do it.

Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister. He acknowledges that it will be in the first quarter and that we would agree a framework for assessing that thereafter and a period which would be acceptable to the rest of the House. Will the Minister make available his Department's audit of the various cost burdens associated with house and apartment construction that led him to that decision, notwithstanding the pressure from me, the committee and others who have been seeking that information? Perhaps the Minister would make available to me, as soon as possible, whatever audit has been carried out by his Department in allowing him to arrive at that decision, in addition to other pressures coming from other parties.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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When making the decisions in the Rebuilding Ireland strategy, we looked at the process of building a house and looked at the levers that are controlled by the Government, by local government and by me. We looked at the obvious things that we could change. We know, for example, that 15 planning applications for more than 100 houses have been submitted to An Bord Pleanála this year. We know that the time period from concept to final decision was 78 weeks on average, with many of the planning applications taking longer than that. It did not take a genius to conclude that maybe we should take a look at streamlining the system, and that is what we have done.

Likewise, we looked at the cost of development levies on many of the sites. There is enough planning permission currently in Dublin for 27,000 houses, but only 4,000 are under construction. When one speaks to people about why construction is not happening they speak about a series of costs. One of those costs is the cost of infrastructure to open up the land for development, so we targeted that issue with the LIHAF fund.

This is a practical response to practical blockages in the system as opposed to being a formal audit. I am happy to share and discuss this. We have had a lot of discussion in the committee on many of these issues already.

Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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Before I proceed I wish to say that I am very reluctant to interrupt a Deputy or the Minister while they are trying to ask a question or give an answer. We are, however, consistently breaking the time barrier for this debate, which means that somebody at the end of the time allotted for this debate is not going to have his or her question answered. I ask for everyone's co-operation. A slot is six and a half minutes with 30 seconds for an introduction. This does not seem to be a problem at all. The Minister is then given two minutes to reply and there are four minutes for supplementary queries and responses, comprising one minute for the Deputy, one minute for the Minister, another minute for the Deputy and another minute for the Minister. When I interrupt, it is because I want to let Deputies know that we need to keep things moving to ensure everyone gets a fair play. I have probably just taken up one minute saying this, so we will move on pretty rapidly.