Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)
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Question 556: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the progress made in regard to the commitment given in the Programme for Government to bring a new focus on quality in the provision of housing. [19375/08]

Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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My Department, through its various mechanisms of policy, legislation and guidance, places priority attention on the promotion of quality in the built environment. Building quality housing is at the core of the Government's housing policy statement Delivering Homes, Sustaining Communities, which sets out a vision to guide the transformation of the Irish housing sector over the next ten years. Since its publication in February 2007, the reform agenda put forward in the statement has been actively pursued and a number of initiatives have already been undertaken.

My Department is developing a suite of guid-ance documents to promote the highest possible standards in residential development and the provision of sustainable communities with access to the requisite range of public services and facilities. Included in the guidance is the promotion of better quality living standards, sustainable residential development and energy efficiency. In particular, in March 2007 at the National Housing Conference, my Department launched new design guidelines on housing delivery entitled Quality Housing for Sustainable Communities. The conference, which was jointly organised by my Department and the RIAI, had as its central theme the housing policy statement Delivering Homes, Sustaining Communities.

The chief purpose of the conference was to debate implementation issues which need to be addressed if we are to transform the Irish housing environment to meet the challenges ahead that are identified in the policy statement. The conference, and associated study tours, demonstrated considerable evidence of integrated approaches to the delivery of housing and greater consciousness of quality in urban design. A subsequent conference, which addressed energy efficiency measures in the revised Building Regulations which come into operation in July and sustainability issues, as well as new approaches to dwelling design, was held in January 2008 and further events of this nature are planned.

In addition, in September 2007, new guidelines for planning authorities entitled Sustainable Urban Housing: Design Standards for New Apartments were published. These were followed by the publication by my Department, in February 2008, of draft guidelines for planning authorities on sustainable residential development in urban areas, for public consultation. The consultation period has now ended and the finalised guidelines will be published later in 2008.

In the private rental sector, while responsibility for enforcement of the private rented accommodation standards as prescribed in the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 1993 rests with the local authorities, I am committed to ensuring that a robust framework is in place to promote improved standards in this part of the residential sector. My Department has provided significantly increased resources to support inspections by local authorities and this performance-linked funding is translating into significantly increased enforcement activity on the ground. I will continue to take the opportunity, when meeting with local authorities, to emphasise the high priority that must be assigned to effective action in this area.

The revision of the Standards Regulations themselves is an important element of an Action programme to promote improvement in standards, which was launched on foot of the Towards 2016 agreement. On foot of a general review of the current Regulations, a Working Group comprising local authority and sectoral representatives is in place and has met twice so far to input into the final drafting of the revised Regulations. Following a short further period of consultation, I intend to finalise the new Regulations in July.