John Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the students to the House. I thank the Minister of State for his reply. If he could correspond with me in respect of the rationale, I would appreciate that. The inflation co-operation agreement announced yesterday is a significant and very welcome move by the Government to address this issue, which has been raised by the sector for a considerable period. I welcome the fact it is to be backdated to the start of January this year, given there has been a significant level of inflation within the sector over that period, which was one of the other points I wanted to address.

Another matter on which if the Minister of State does not have an answer to hand, he might let me know at another point, relates to who will be responsible for carrying out the assessment. I acknowledge it will be indexed to the CSO in terms of the main indices and the inflation that will have been recorded by that office, but in the case of housing projects, whether social or affordable, will individual local authorities carry out that open-book assessment with the developer or will there be national oversight of the assessments?

I welcome the moves made by the Government, which are very significant. They will ensure that much-needed housing projects will continue to be delivered throughout the country.