Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for being with us. It is great to hear the numbers relating housing, whereby almost 30,000 homes were delivered in 2022, and the targets in Housing for All.

In my home town of Ballinasloe, more than 70 units are going to come on stream as a result of a particular development. These are homes for families in our town. They are crucial. This was a turnkey development. Funding was provided to local authorities to purchase the site for a turnkey development in Ballinasloe. Allocations are happening through Galway County Council. We look forward, please God, to families being in those homes before Christmas. The funding to the local authority was crucial to support the build.

We have also seen a very positive development with the increase in the income thresholds. For County Galway, the income threshold rose by 40%. It is now €35,000. Previously, it was €25,000. There were two increases of €5,000, which were very important. The threshold in County Roscommon rose to €30,000. There are different bands in different counties. My question is on HAP rates. County Roscommon falls into one of the lower bands. I ask that the Minister and the Department look at these lower band rates. Monksland, which is located outside the city of Athlone, is in County Roscommon. It is competing in the most urbanised area outside of Ballinasloe and Roscommon town in terms of the HAP rates being paid through the local authority. However, County Westmeath, which is on the other side, has a higher level of HAP. We see this sometimes around county boundaries. When one is living in a city or a large town, there are a lot of pressures that cause many challenges for local authorities in supporting families who have to pay the difference and top-up. My question regarding HAP would be to ask that those lower levels be examined. How do we look at areas that are within a city or large town boundary where there are real urban pressures on prices and rental prices?

The first home scheme is great. Leveraging shared equity is a fantastic initiative, as is the help-to-buy scheme. This is all wonderful to see. My real interest is with the vacant home scheme, or Croí Cónaithe. From what I understand, we have the largest number of applications for the scheme, in County Galway. I stand open to correction on that, however. Our county is the second largest in the country, so that would make it very reasonable to see that. The challenge is for inspectors to come and examine properties. We are seeing time lags in this regard. Local authorities have experienced huge demand, but what we are not seeing is the capacity or, perhaps, the resources being put in place. I would like to know how we will resolve this because there are delays coming into the system. People are applying for the scheme, which offers up to €50,000 or €70,000 for a derelict building. They pay all this money out in the first instance and the works have to get done. There is a certain period of when the works have to be done, and then for the inspectors to come out. There is a timelag on this. We are seeing this specifically in County Galway for people applying to this programme. I want to see more and more people applying for it. I want to see it be a huge success because it is something being driven by our Government. However, I see the challenges around the administrative processes, which of course are necessary. Can this programme be reviewed to see if some sort of staged funding could be provided if a certain amount of work is done? If €10,000 worth of work is done, for example, is there any way of looking at how staged payments might be processed to support young people, or people who are trying to manage with a mortgage who are also planning to use this fund, but the funds will not be available until works are complete? For example, is there a way of working with credit unions on this issue? I know we have spoken about this before, but it might be taken into account for a review of this programme.

I will probably think of ten other things when I sit down. I thank the Minister of State for the update.