Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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30. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the cost of the modular units in Poppintree in Ballymun, Dublin 9; and if the modular units represent value for money or if the money would be better spent purchasing homes on the open market. [11832/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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In October 2015, the Government approved a programme to deliver 500 units of rapid-delivery housing across the Dublin region for homeless families currently residing in commercial hotels. InNovember 2015, Dublin City Council entered into a contract for the delivery of the 22 units in Ballymun at a cost of €4.2 million excluding VAT. This is the original tender cost and remains the approved cost, equating to approximately €191,000, excluding VAT per unit. I understand that final accounts between the council and the provider are pending. The 22 units have been completed and are being occupied. The average cost of these units must be considered in the context of their early delivery and the quality involved. It is highly unlikely that purchasing properties on the open market could have delivered sufficient quantities of such high quality units in suitable locations in such a short period, given the timescales inherent in surveying and conveyance requirements which would attach to each individual property. It must also be borne in mind, in terms of making cost comparisons, that many units purchased on the open market, particularly second-hand units, would require further expenditure in respect of renovations that may be required to bring them up to standard.

Notwithstanding this, the acquisition of units on the open market remains an important part of the overall social housing programme. More than 1,000 units were acquired for social housing across all local authorities in 2015 and a similar number is planned for this year.

With regard to the cost of the rapid-build units in Ballymun, I expect that if we can increase the number delivered significantly, we should achieve economies of scale and get the cost down. We will have to wait to see what the final cost will be to Dublin City Council from the provider but the Department signed off on a cost of €4.2 million, or approximately €191,000 per unit. This was a pilot project and it was the first time we took a rapid housing delivery approach. We have learned some lessons. It has taken longer than expected and the units may be slighted more expensive than expected. Learning lessons from that, I hope we will be able to deliver units quickly with rapid-build technology in the future and build on the experience of the first project, which was a pilot project that is still housing 22 families.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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The context of the question is the Minister's remark that he is considering increasing the proposed number of rapid-delivery units from 500 to 1,000 in the coming year. One of the concerns many of us had when the rapid builds were first announced related to cost. My party is not against them on principle. If they get families out of inadequate and cramped emergency and hotel accommodation for short-term stays before they move on to long-term housing, they could have a role to play in tackling the emergency. The difficulty, however, is on the basis of the full cost the Minister has outlined, the unit cost will be approximately of €210,000. As RTE revealed in a "Prime Time" special, there is a potential additional cost of €500,000. Correspondence was exchanged between Dublin City Council and the Department, albeit before the Minister took office, regarding additional costs fro the 22 units in Poppintree. The city council will not comment on this but our concern is whether this is an additional cost that may also have to be factored into rapid builds elsewhere.

We are also concerned that given that many families remain in emergency accommodation, for example, in Dublin city for more than 18 months or in my own constituency in the South Dublin City Council area for more than 12 months, they may not be short stays. Can the Minister give us an assurance if he proposes an increase in the number of rapid builds, that there will be a significant reduction in the cost of the first tranche and that he will also do everything in his power to ensure people are accommodated on the basis of an emergency stay only and the units do not become long-term housing by another means?

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Sometimes there is a misunderstanding regarding the difference between rapid-build technologies and engineering solutions and modular housing units as if we are somehow building the trailers parks of the future. That is not what we are doing. Anybody who has visited the Ballymun project has seen houses that look like many other houses that have been built through normal construction methods. A strategic decision was taken at some point to construct rapid-build units instead of using modular housing units which would perhaps be more temporary.

Timber-frame house building was frowned upon and questioned 15 years ago, but has subsequently become the norm for many people. My understanding is that the houses in Ballymun have a life expectancy of 60 years, so this should not simply be temporary accommodation. We are talking about building proper homes for people that manage energy appropriately and are high-quality builds that can be built far more quickly than buildings delivered through conventional methods.

I am emphasising the point that I would like to see chief executives using rapid-build technologies if this can solve problems within their communities, along with other strategies around acquisition and so on, because of the figures we saw yesterday, which are yet another reminder of the urgency with which we need to deal with this issue by getting more supply into the marketplace from a social housing perspective.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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Again, I agree with the Minister. Part of the difficulty in respect of the public debate around this is the fact that the original proposal was for prefabs, and some of the models that were presented to city and county councillors were prefabs and not the timber-frame rapid-build houses that we have seen.

We want to see the maximum number of units both for long-term housing and good-quality emergency accommodation. Therefore, where local authorities are to act under instruction from the Minister, we need to ensure that the units are good quality and represent best value for money for the taxpayer. We need to ensure that emergency units are for emergency stays and that permanent housing is permanent housing. Perhaps some more transparency in the costings and plans for the Poppintree development would have helped the public debate. I will welcome the Minister's announcements on these at a later stage.