Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will go faster if I can. I am probably going too fast as it is.

Senator Davitt welcomed the panel commission changes. Again, these changes are designed to try to speed up activation of sites. It goes back to the carrot-and-stick approach. The vacant site levy will kick in in 2019. The work on the register for that will be done in 2017 and 2018, but the charge only will come into effect in January 2019. We are trying to encourage people to bring forward the sites by means of offering them the carrot of working with them, through the provision of infrastructure and other schemes, to make it easier to do joint ventures with local authorities and the private sector. Again, the intention is to encourage them to activate the sites now. That does not mean that we are giving people extra profits. If the State is working on infrastructure relating to sites, there has to be a payback for the State. That will happen.

Senator Davitt raised the provision of one-off sites to people. There is nothing preventing that from happening. We have been very clear to all local authorities and told them to bring forward their proposals, to show us the level of demand, to outline their ideas and to use their imaginations. We have a range of schemes here and ways of funding that. There was great success with site provision in some counties, in others there was not because houses were not finished-out or completed and that caused great difficulties. The scheme can work. If local authorities in specific areas, for example, Westmeath County Council, want to bring forward initiatives, we would be open to examining their proposals and working with them. This goes back to getting sites activated, getting the best use for taxpayers and getting people homes and houses as quickly as possible.

Senator Lombard referred to rent pressure zones. At present, these are dealt with on the basis of the local electoral areas. In some cases, this means that the population of a zone can be over 80,000 or 100,000. For now, the scheme is in place and we need to get on top of the major pressure zones. We are constantly taking the advice of the Residential Tenancies Board on that matter. We can use all of that advice and do more in respect of the issue.The Senator is saying it is a good start and that we need to keep an eye on it in terms of rent pressure zones but above all that, when it comes to rent the key is to increase supply and that is what we are trying to do. Most of the actions in this action plan are about increasing the supply of housing and trying to deal with that as best we can.

The issue of accommodation for people who are renting was raised. We are trying to encourage build to rent projects so that people purposely build rental properties and are trying to deal with the rent security issue as best we can.

As for Senator Dolan's point, as I was not present in the Chamber for that motion last year, I am not familiar with it. There is a commitment, however, to provide accommodation for people with disabilities and it is an issue I would be happy to work on with the Senator. I will get the specific figures he seeks on the report. There is a commitment to produce a report by the middle of 2017 with real targets and results but again-----