Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

He has not been strong-arming Mr. McCarthy or twisting his arm.

I refer to Pillar 3, first, and the local infrastructure housing activation fund, LIHAF. I am increasingly concerned that the original intention of this scheme, which was to assist in the delivery of affordable units, will no longer happen. A sum of €226 million has been awarded in principle to a range of projects. Last August, under a circular from the Department local authorities were given guidance on what the affordability component should be. The circular says clearly that a minimum of 40% of homes delivered should be available at prices 10% below the average cost of market housing, including under €300,000 in Dublin and comparative affordability outside Dublin. Given the cohort of people for whom affordable housing is required, in real terms one is looking to €230,000 to €260,000 as opposed to €300,000. In September a new circular was issued which stated that it might not always be possible to deliver 40% of the new homes under the LIHAF bids at prices 10% below the average cost of market housing. When I questioned the previous Minister, Deputy Coveney, on this some weeks ago he essentially said that the criteria are now up to the local authority in its negotiations with the developers. I am hearing from colleagues in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, for example, that there might be no affordability in terms of the affordable units in the development that is benefitting from taxpayers' money.

What is the Department's target for affordability? What is it considering in terms of the percentage of units and the price of units? The Minister gave a clear commitment that if affordability was not delivered the funding would not be released. Can that be confirmed? If we meet again in a few weeks and we see units in Cherrywood at €350,000, €380,000 or even €400,000, many of us will wish to know why any of that LIHAF funding is being disbursed. I am very concerned about that.

I am also concerned about reports in the Sunday Business Postrelating to the review of the all-in costs of construction which the Department and the Housing Agency are conducting. It is a newspaper report so it might not be accurate, which is not to cast aspersions on the Sunday Business Post, but it appeared to suggest that there might be a reassessment of apartment standards. There has been intensive lobbying by some of the large developers in terms of car parking spaces, the number of lift shafts, dual aspect and so forth. I seek an update on the review of the all-in costs and some further detail on it.

Many of us have concerns around issues of fire safety, particularly in the context of what we hope will be a very significant increase in new public and private stock coming on stream. We have all been raising the Milford Manor report from Newbridge and asking for updates through parliamentary questions, although we have not been getting much clarity. My questions are very specific. How long has that fire safety report been on the desk in the Department? What are the issues delaying its publication and when is it hoped that it will be published in some form or another? It is a key report in terms of the kinds of matters about which we are all concerned.

With regard to private rental, the fourth pillar, what is going on with the cost rental model? We have been talking about this for two or three years and we are hearing from Dublin City Council, for example, that with the Oscar Traynor road site, there may not be a cost rental element to it. Nobody knows what that model is looking like. In South Dublin County Council, the manager has already excluded cost rental from the joint venture that is being proposed for Kilcarbery-The Grange as there was not a model. Even the Minister when he was before us the last day said we were progressing cost rental. I do not see it. My understanding is there is one project and perhaps clarity can be provided on that. The Housing Agency outside of Dublin, perhaps in Greystones, may have some element of cost rental. There is no point in us talking about this now as it is two years since the ESRI report and we do not have a model. Could we have an update on that?

I do not want to open a big debate on short-term let regulations so I will not look for any detail aside from the following. Why has it taken seven months from the An Bord Pleanála decision for the first meeting of the working group in the Department? It seems to be an incredibly long period and we were all quite surprised to learn that when the departmental officials were here last week. What pressure is the being directly brought to bear on Airbnb to provide the data it has so far been unwilling to share with officials or Members of the Oireachtas that would give us a real sense of whether there is a problem with commercial landlords abusing those online platforms?

Will we get a timeline on when the vacant homes report will be published? I appreciate the new Minister wants some time to examine the draft on his desk and I am quite heartened by some of the comments from him and the new Taoiseach. Clearly if it did not include a vacant home tax, for example, there would be no stick to match the carrot. Will the targets be more ambitious than the 3% of vacant stock that the Department and the action plan currently has and will more money be allocated to that?

I also have a miscellaneous question. I understand there is a departmental working group currently examining regulations of approved housing bodies. As we know, there is an issue around the potential for the redesignation of approved housing bodies as on-balance sheet State bodies, as has happened in Britain. That would have major implications for the funding of Rebuilding Ireland and conversations we will have with the credit union sector and approved housing bodies regarding potential additional lending. Could we get an update on the discussions about the regulation of approved housing bodies and when it is expected that the legislation will come to us? Do the witnesses have any fears with regard to EUROSTAT, the Central Statistics Office and the current review being done on the status of approved housing bodies as non-State entities rather than State entities?