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

Senator Mulherin is not here so I will not go into the issues she raised, which were mainly local issues concerning pyrite and mica in Mayo. I hope the scheme to which she referred will be over the line very soon. As part of the budget it was announced that a scheme would be designed. All of that work has been done. Officials from my Department have met representatives of Mayo County Council and Donegal County Council with a view to completing the scheme.

I will respond to Senator Boyhan before he has a canary. The Senator asked whether the Part V obligation to provide social housing should be increased from 10% to 20%. An increase is not on our radar at the moment. I understand that the percentage of social housing on many sites is well above 20%. We engage with developers of sites on social and affordable housing and many sites have delivered much more than 10%. Legislation stipulates 10% as the minimum but it not a maximum. We will keep an eye on the matter. To be honest, we have no plans to increase the percentage.

The Senator outlined the parts of the action plan that work, including the place finders service. I agree with him that the place finders service works very well. Some local authorities have asked for additional resources and we have provided them. Some local authorities have two or three place finder offices while others only have one. I think the Senator was here when I said that the scheme has helped more than 8,000 people to find a HAP property or rental property. The scheme has been a success. We would prefer if people did not need the service in the first place. Naturally, it will not be a long-term service.

The Senator mentioned the land aggregation, LAG, scheme and its sites. I have outlined the best way to get a return on those lands in counties Louth and Meath and many other counties. If someone has a site and is paying interest on it and trying to carry the cost, the best solution is to utilise it and bring it back into use, which is where we can be of assistance. The Senator said some of the sites are not serviced. There are funds available to service them. The sites are being looked at by the Land Development Agency and local authorities in order to bring forward plans. There is money available to service them and make them available. Some of these sites are large and we do not believe they should have social housing only. They should have a combination of social, affordable and private housing and pay for some of the infrastructure under that model. I explained the four-stage process and will not repeat myself. I do not believe the process delays house construction and I can prove my point by showing people our week by week chart.

Shanganagh Castle was mentioned. I do not know the full history of the project and I can only tell the Senator the current state of affairs. As he will know, the site has been identified as a project of interest by my Department. It is something that we have focused on for a while and I have been on the site a couple of times. Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council is working in partnership with the Land Development Agency. This year, the council and the LDA have worked on plans and I have seen some of the plans, as has the Senator. They are working to project to development ready stage. The site can yield approximately 600 homes, the majority of which are likely to be social and affordable housing. I hope that will be the case. The site belongs to the council, not me or the Senator. Subject to the approval of the elected members of the council, who are in charge of it through the local authority, it is expected that an application for planning can be made to An Bord Pleanála by the end of the year. Pending a grant of planning approval, a procurement process will take place with an expected onsite timeline of early 2021. I believe we can beat that timeline. If planning is secured, I am sure a way can be found to get on site before the end of 2020. I do not see why that cannot be done. I set out the rough timeline.

The county council hopes that the serviced site fund will be approved in time in order to open up the site. I expect we will be able to work with it on this matter but a procedure must be followed. The key is to get the site to planning stage and secure planning permission, while respecting everyone's rights in the planning process.

The Senator mentioned the Central Mental Hospital, which is another site that has been talked about for a while. I agree with him that there is no reason to wait until the site is fully available before planning for it. On establishment, the LDA had access to eight sites of which the site in Dundrum was one. The plan was to deliver about 3,000 houses. The site has the potential to produce between 1,500 and 1,600 units but the number depends on the master plan. The site has been identified as a potential site for cost-rental as well as other housing. Significant preparatory work is under way for these sites.

The Senator mentioned another site, which it is hoped will complete the planning process in 2020. The Senator asked about the master plan. There is no reason construction on the site could not start earlier than 2021.

The Land Development Agency is up and running. The legislation still has to come through these Houses. I hope it will be supported because the agency can have a long-term impact on the future management of land in this country. The agency has enjoyed initial success with some of these sites but we need an agency of this kind to work in conjunction with local authorities to manage land and ensure we avoid a return to the situation where nobody is building housing in a given year. The remit of the Land Development Agency, on behalf of the State, is to make sure there is a steady supply of housing coming through the system.