Anthony Lawlor (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is a phenomenal sum, which equates to between 7,000 and 11,000 housing units. People forget that the housing crisis started because houses were not being built when they were needed. The allocation of €2.5 billion is a huge amount. I ask the Minister of State to consider how we go about letting local authorities spend this money. In my area, for example, the local authority bought land with planning permission attached but then decided the planning permission was not suitable for its needs. The land was bought a year and a half ago. The problem is that a tender must be issued at each stage, whether for architects or design, because of public procurement. We have to be smart and do something about that. The housing bodies do not have to go through that process, which is why more and more of them are building houses.