Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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2057. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his views on the slow timeframe needed to complete the current four social housing approval stages between local authorities and the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government; the way in which this process could be reduced to speed up the time taken from when a site and project have been identified by the local authority to when a contractor commences on site; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38640/17]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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The 4-stage approval process, under which assessments are carried out for publicly funded capital projects for which my Department is the sanctioning authority, is a streamlining of the 9 stages covered under Capital Works Management Framework. The 4 stages are:

Stage 1 – Capital Appraisal (establish the business case);

Stage 2 – Brief pre-planning developed design and cost check;

Stage 3 – Pre-tender cost check;

Stage 4 – Tender approval.

These 4 stages are advanced largely in parallel with the normal local authority work on planning, designing and tendering of social housing construction projects.  Therefore projects continue to be advanced while stages are cleared and the approval process does not negatively impact on the overall delivery.

The time taken for advancement through the various stages will always vary, with the quality and completeness of the initial proposal and subsequent submissions as well as the scale and complexity of individual projects. My Department also encourages informal technical dialogue to resolve issues and while that might appear to add to the time it takes to issue an approval, it is normally a more productive engagement in terms of getting projects from concept to completion as efficiently as possible.

Social housing projects funded by my Department, like all Government Capital construction projects, must comply with the Government’s Capital Works Management Framework (CWMF), the strategic objectives of which are to ensure greater cost certainty, better value for money and financial accountability, at all stages during project delivery and more efficient end-user delivery.

Having streamlined the nine approval stages of the CWMF to just four approval stages for capital-funded social housing construction projects, my Department has no interest in unnecessarily prolonging the time involved in the approvals. In fact, the approvals themselves represent a small minority only of the time taken in advancing a build project onto site. The operation of the approval process means that local authorities forward design proposals and costings to the Department sequentially, as the authorities advance the projects through their own planning work. 

At the same time, my Department is very conscious of the importance of striving for speed and efficiency in the delivery of social housing and, under the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, a review of procedures in relation to project approvals was carried out and is available at the following link: .

The recommendations of the Review include better “pre-approval” communications on construction proposals, using opportunities to combine project approval stages and setting targets on projects for turnaround times for approval. All of these recommendations are being implemented by my Department and local authorities. Indeed, a Working Group comprising representatives from local authorities and my Department has been established to agree swift and ambitious turnaround timeframes for project approvals and this group will conclude its work shortly.  

For smaller projects (less than 15 units and less than €2m) we have introduced a single stage approval process which may suit less complex schemes to be delivered in this manner.

In addition, my Department has asked all local authorities to review the social housing projects in their areas and in the interest of achieving earliest delivery, they have been requested to consider their suitability for Design and Build contracts under the Rapid Delivery Framework set up by the Office of Government Procurement. They have been asked to consider, in particular, schemes which are amenable to early commencement, particularly in terms of their approved planning status.