I express my condolences to the family of Brother Kevin Crowley and in particular his colleagues who he worked with. As a freeman of Dublin city, he was a Cork man who made a huge impact on our city. I want to acknowledge that today. I raise bundle 3 and the Minister’s decision not to proceed with the tendering process related to that bundle. I served on Dublin City Council for ten years and for the best part of those ten years, we had public sites on which we wanted to build homes. We wanted to do that in a way that provided mixed communities. In recent years, Housing for All has given Dublin City Council the ability to build those mixed communities on those public sites through cost-rental, affordable and social housing. Across my constituency, many sites are proceeding on that basis, Oscar Traynor Road being the largest. People are delighted to see construction taking place and homes being built. It was with some disappointment that we saw the Minister decide not to proceed with bundle 3. That bundle included nearly 500 homes, 200 of those are in my constituency, at Shangan Road and Collins Avenue. That has an impact on the broader bundles that are outstanding, bundles 4 to 7, inclusive, because of the 4,500 housing units across the whole country, over 1,000 are in my constituency. I am, therefore, particularly concerned about the future of these bundles and their delivery. These bundles do exactly what local authorities should be doing. They involve taking sites with complex issues, resolving those issues and putting them out to tender for construction. The Shangan Road site, for example, is a dedicated older persons’ complex. The Collins Avenue site is the Port Tunnel site which many people will have driven past. On the Church of the Annunciation site, an old church was demolished in partnership with the parish and we were able to identify potential for housing on that site. On Wellmount Road, we had a green space that was the subject of antisocial behaviour and we were able to put in place a solution. On the Collins Avenue bring centre, the DCU site, we relocated an old Dublin City Council depot, created a new one and created a site in the city. In Balcurris, we brought a number of sites together as a bundle. These are all measures the local authority has taken, on which solutions have been brought forward using the tools available in Housing for All. We are very concerned. While we have to have value for money, we also want to see some of these sites, which have full planning permission, proceed.
Sentiment score: 0.20
I thank the Minister. As I say, when people see sites under construction they have some hope and belief that things are changing. When planning went out for these sites they saw the designs and plans for them. There is an expectation. I welcome that the Minister is taking this seriously and urgently. I also agree with the Minister. As a member of the Committee of Public Accounts, I will not stand over the Government spending more than €1 million per unit. I can understand the difficulty. Just because a developer puts in a figure does not mean the Government has to pay that amount to deliver. I accept that but what we cannot accept is any significant delay. I ask the Minister for public expenditure and the Minister for housing to ensure the Dublin local authorities and the other local authorities impacted are presented quickly with a solution-----
Sentiment score: 0.17
-----and the sites with full planning permission are given priority so we can get shovels into the ground and these homes can be built. They are the way forward for how we provide housing. That is what Housing for All is all about. We have hit a speed bump. We cannot pay any figure that is presented to us but we also have to act with urgency to find an alternative.
Sentiment score: 0.01