Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

A significant amount of the expanded output of affordable housing over the coming years will be delivered through the affordable housing initiative. A key factor in meeting the 10,000 units proposed for this initiative has been the release of State and local authority lands. More than 70 projects planned for State and local authority lands together with the 2,500 affordable housing units under Part V of the Act will deliver this targeted number of units. All projects are now being progressed as a matter of urgency through procurement options that seek to deliver quality housing at reasonable prices as soon as possible.

Part V is an important instrument, and will continue to be in the future, in expanding the supply of affordable housing. The NESC report, which was quoted extensively, suggested that Part V was "the single most important policy development in recent decades". Output under Part V is dependent on the level and commencement of private sector residential development, but will be significant in the future. The old planning permissions which are there are fading out, though some of the big ones with ten-year permission will obviously take some time. However, with regard to Part V, some people take a simplistic view, just using arithmetic, 20% of 81,000, coming up with a figure of about 16,000. This was never meant to apply to one-off housing around the country or to developments on unzoned land, but applies to developments of a minimum of four units. Part V was always meant to apply to a segment of the total output, not the entire output. However, its output will increase over the years.