Vol. 1070 No. 2
2. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide an update on the review of section 10 funding for homelessness service providers; and the changes he intends to make to this funding stream, in light of the near financial collapse of an organisation (details supplied) in 2023. [36134/25]
I am taking this question on behalf of Deputy Eoin Ó Broin. Will the Minister provide an update on the review of section 10 funding for homelessness service providers and the changes he intends to make to this funding stream in light of the near financial collapse of an organisation in 2023?
I thank the Deputy very much for requesting an update on the review of the section 10 funding for homelessness services and the changes I intend to make to this funding stream. Supporting individuals and families facing homelessness is a priority for the Government. I recognise the vital work of the NGO sector and its valuable contribution to the lives of those experiencing or at risk of homelessness. My Department regularly engages with the sector on all aspects of homeless policy, including funding arrangements.
Significant progress has been made in addressing concerns raised within the NGO homelessness services sector about the adequacy of funding. A number of uplifts to cost-of-living increases have been agreed and applied to service level agreements over the past two and a half years, including pay increases on foot of negotiations at the Workplace Relations Commission. Last year, my Department conducted an internal review of the section 10 funding model, focusing on issues of governance and public expenditure oversight compliance. The final report of the review will be finalised in the coming weeks. In addition, a recent review conducted by the City and County Managers Association examined the funding provided to NGOs for homelessness services. The report was presented to the Department in March 2025 and I have asked officials to progress implementation of the recommendations, including costing of recommendations and consultation with stakeholders.
The Peter McVerry Trust almost went bankrupt in the summer of 2023. The core issue was the use of capital funding to cross-subsidise the day-to-day running costs of the organisation. It ran up a liability of almost €20 million. There have been two independent regulator reports on the issues. It is totally unacceptable that the provision of homelessness services has been privatised and commercialised out. Why is 100% of the funding not given? Why is it 90%? Why is it that homelessness service providers must outbid each other? What is that about? It is the Government's responsibility to look after homeless people and provide emergency accommodation and services. Why is the Government not doing this? Why has it been turned into a commercial system where providers are pitted against each other? This was always going to happen. The question is why it was allowed to happen.
As the Deputy knows, efforts are ongoing to reduce the reliance on commercial hotels to accommodate families, with the preferred model being the provision of supported accommodation operated by NGO providers. The increasing numbers in emergency accommodation have led to increased pressures on housing authorities to provide sufficient accommodation. To increase provision, housing authorities are heavily reliant on private emergency accommodation. Capital funding of €25 million is being made available to housing authorities and NGOs for the delivery of high-quality, supported emergency accommodation for families and individuals experiencing homelessness.
I asked the Minister a couple of questions and he answered none of them. Why is 100% of the funding not being given to homelessness service providers? Why are they put into a bidding war with each other in trying to provide homelessness services for people? Was there any oversight of what was happening? There had to be a €15 million bailout of the Peter McVerry Trust, a trust that was set up to support homeless people. Government policy over the years has been to farm these services out and to do a Pontius Pilate and wash its hands of it. We need funding now. What we should have is funding to 100% and providers given the support they need to provide the services. What changes does the Minister intend to make to ensure this does not happen again? I know he said a report is coming shortly. How many private contractors or suppliers have not been paid by the trust arising from its near collapse? What is the value of these liabilities and what are the Minister and the Department going to do to ensure these liabilities are cleared and paid off?
I hear the Deputy saying he wants to trust the NGOs more but also to have more oversight of them. The NGOs here do phenomenally good work. We are providing record funding to address homelessness. What we want to do, though, is to prevent homelessness occurring in the first place and that is why we are making rapid decisions to significantly increase the supply of housing right across the country. Until we can address the homelessness situation, however, we will continue to support the NGOs and the local authorities to provide the housing needed for people who find themselves in need of emergency accommodation. We do not want to be relying on the private sector but the accommodation is simply not there now. The most important thing is that people have the emergency accommodation they need when they need it, and that is what we are doing.
3. Deputy Conor Sheehan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to provide an update on the development of the Government’s housing plan; if it will be published before the summer recess; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35894/25]
I thank the Deputy for asking this question in relation to an update on the Government's housing plan. The programme for Government commits to the introduction of a new all-of-government national housing plan to follow Housing for All, underpinned by multi-annual funding. Work is well under way in my Department on the development of this new housing plan. A programme of targeted stakeholder engagement has been undertaken. Written submissions have been received from across government and from a range of external stakeholders, including State agencies, the community and voluntary sector and industry and academics. These submissions are being carefully considered and I have also met with many stakeholders to hear at first hand what actions they think should be reflected in the plan. I am committed to its finalisation and publication as soon as possible.
It is essential, however, that this plan align with the timing of the outcome of the national development plan review process being undertaken by my colleague the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Sector Reform and Digitalisation.
This will allow for the plan to be underpinned by the required multi-annual funding across not just my Department but across government. This will ensure a whole-of-government approach that tackles the challenges we are facing to support people who are experiencing homelessness or trying to access a home to buy or rent. In the meantime, as Minister, I remain focused on ensuring that we bring forward urgently every measure possible to support housing delivery in the short term and to place us on a longer-term sustainable pathway that will meet the housing needs of all our people and communities.
The plan was supposed to be published in July. I understand from what the Minister said and what we have seen in the media that it will be delayed until September. We know the Government has a target to deliver 303,000 homes by 2030 and that the target will be missed again this year by around 10,000. Will the Minister give the House an outline of what measures to scale up delivery are being considered and what he will do about uncommenced planning permissions? Can he guarantee in line with the NDP review that the funding needs of the utilities such as Uisce Éireann will be met on a multi-annual basis? A key recommendation of the Housing Commission was that social and affordable housing be scaled up to 20% of all housing stock. Will that recommendation be heeded in the new plan?
We are engaging with all the stakeholders regarding our new housing plan. The housing plan will follow the NDP. When that is finalised, the NDP will clearly set out the funding available for the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and other Departments that are key in delivering the infrastructure we need to deliver the housing we need. It is in that context that the housing plan will be developed. We have already taken significant measures. We are not waiting for the housing plan to start taking the measures we need to take. We have already agreed to preserve the existing planning permissions for properties that may be about expire. We have established housing activation offices and increased the powers of the LDA. In the autumn, we will have a clear suite of planning exemptions to free up the time of our planners. We have also established An Coimisiún Pleanála. This week, there was further agreement to minimise the workload of local authorities by reducing the four-stage process for delivering social housing down to a single stage.
The Minister did not address the recommendation from the Housing Commission to increase social and affordable housing to 20% of all stock. This badly needs to be done. It is a key plank of the commission's recommendations. I hope the Minister might be able to give us an outline of when each section of the Planning and Development Act will be enacted, including timelines, and whether he intends to look at tweaking the croí conaithe and secure tenancy affordable rental investment schemes to make them more viable for developers in smaller cities outside Dublin.
The vast majority of the Act will be commenced by the end of this year. We have already started to commence it with the commencement of the urban development zone sections and the establishment of An Coimisiún Pleanála. The State is delivering approximately 50% of all housing solutions, including from the private sector Part V. Our ambition is to continue delivering as much social and affordable housing as can be delivered by the State. We really believe in the delivery of social and affordable housing but if we want to get housing delivery for this country, we have to activate the private sector and that is why we are engaging with many decisions to not only facilitate the quicker delivery of social and affordable housing but also activate the private sector so we can get up to the delivery of 50,000 or 60,000 homes per year, which is what we need to do so that everybody has the housing solution that they need and can afford.
4. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the derelict sites levies levied, collected, owed and cumulatively owed; the number of sites subject to a CPO in the previous 12 months; the number of sites for which a levy was applied; and the number of sites on their register on 31 December 2024, by local authority, in tabular form. [36135/25]
I wish to ask the Minister about the derelict sites levies that have been levied, collected and owed; the number of sites subject to a CPO in the previous 12 months; the number of sites for which a levy was applied; and the number of sites on the register on 31 December 2024, by local authority.
I thank the Deputy for raising this matter, which he consistently does. The Derelict Sites Act 1990 imposes a general duty on every owner and occupier of land to take all reasonable steps to ensure that land does not become, or continue to be, a derelict site as defined in the Act. The Act also imposes a duty on local authorities to take all reasonable steps, including the exercise of appropriate statutory powers, to ensure that any land within their functional area does not become, or continue to be, a derelict site.
Each local authority maintains a derelict sites register under section 8 of the Act for sites which they consider are derelict under the Act. Sites entered on the derelict sites register are subject to an annual derelict sites levy of 7% of market value, which will continue to apply until the site is rendered non-derelict. However, the placing of sites on the register and the collecting of levies on those sites are part of the overall process that local authorities undertake with the owners of derelict sites they identify. Local authorities will engage directly with site owners to try to bring these sites back into productive use and out of dereliction before they are formally listed on the register. This direct engagement can often lead to those units being brought back into productive use, which is what we all want.
Local authorities are required to submit an annual return to my Department providing information on the operation of the Derelict Sites Act in their functional areas. The derelict sites returns are collected in quarter 2 of the following year so my Department is still collating the 2024 returns and will publish them shortly. I propose to circulate with the Official Report a tabular statement setting out the information requested regarding the 2023 returns.
The Minister of State and I sat on the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage for four years. There are local authorities that will not put sites on the derelict sites register; some local authorities will not impose the levy, which is the law; and other local authorities will not collect the levy. Millions of euro are owed on derelict sites on the register but there are more sites that have not been put on it. This Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Government has allowed local authorities to not enforce the law. If a man parks his car illegally outside this House and gets a ticket, he has to pay it but the Government believes that a building falling down in the centre of Dublin, Cork, Waterford or Limerick should attract no attention. If one walks out of here and walks down the quays of Dublin, one will see the dereliction so how can one say things are being done? It is a scandal. There is a place on North Main Street in Cork that is falling down around us. Cork City Council has tried to CPO it but the landlord is blocking it. It is a scandal.
The Deputy does not have to shout in order to make his points. We can all make valid points without shouting across the Chamber at one another. It is true to say that dereliction is a really important issue. It is not one that local authorities or Government are ignoring. The Deputy knows full well because we both sat on the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage all of the measures that are in place to assist those. They include the vacant property refurbishment grant, buy and renew, repair and lease and CPO. The Government provided local authorities with €150 million to allow them to CPO properties. We do need to see more local authorities activating such sites and they do have obligations in this respect. Where levies are levied, when the unit is ultimately disposed of, those moneys are collected by the local authority. There is an onus on local authorities to place properties on the register. The Deputy should not dismiss that. The approach involves using the carrot and the stick. What we all want in this Chamber is to see those units brought back into productive use.
The facts are the facts. There are derelict sites in every town, village and city in this State. Between them, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have been in government for between ten and 14 years. These are the facts. I am not making this up. If the Minister of State wants to walk down the street with me, I will walk down with the three Ministers and a couple of Members of the Opposition and we will show him the dereliction.
The Minister of State should not come in here and say he is doing this and he is doing that. There is unbelievable dereliction, which is destroying communities, and he says the onus is on local authorities. I recall the pressure that myself and Deputy Ó Broin in opposition put on the previous Government. There was no section within housing to tackle dereliction until we came at it non-stop over recent years and now there is. There is one person in each local authority - one person. Would the Government not give the local authorities the funding to hire the staff to do the work? The Minister of State spoke about a fund of €150 million. Why are there so many derelict buildings? Will he answer that?
As I said, the Government has put in place a number of schemes to empower local authorities on the exact thing the Deputy just mentioned. There is a revolving fund through URDF call 3 for the compulsory purchase of properties. It is true that some local authorities are doing better than others. We want to mainstream best practice across all local authorities. There are also other schemes such as repair and lease, buy and renew and the vacant property refurbishment grant, which are all there to be able to activate those properties. Where they are not being activated, yes, the stick of the CPO and of the derelict sites register has to be applied by local authorities. I do not disagree with the Deputy on that. Of course, they are there to be used. What we all want is for those units to be brought back into productive use. If engagement with the owner of those properties and availing of some of the other schemes does that, that is great; if it does not and we use the CPO or the Derelict Sites Act then so be it.
It is not happening.
5. Deputy Rory Hearne asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the reason he decided to withdraw funding for social housing PPP bundles shovel ready this week; and the measures he will take to ensure the 3,000 social homes planned as PPPs are going to be delivered in the original timeframe. [36246/25]
The Minister will be well aware that he and his Department decided to withdraw funding for up to 500 social homes that were due to be delivered through public-private partnerships. Will he set out the rationale that underpins that decision and give detail on it? How many value for money assessments were undertaken before the final decision was made? Will he outline the measures to ensure the 3,000 social homes set to be delivered as PPPs will be delivered as social housing in the original timeframes?
It is the clear focus of this Government to increase the supply of new build social and affordable homes. As such, the decision not to proceed with the contract award for bundle 3 was not taken lightly and was made after much careful consideration of the costs involved and is ultimately the correct decision.
I cannot comment on or discuss the tendered costs for PPP bundle 3 as these numbers are part of the preferred tenderer's tender submission covered by confidentially clauses in the procurement documents and are commercially sensitive. The costs for the earlier completed PPP bundles 1 and 2 will be released in the coming months as part of the public sector benchmark process. However, I assure the Deputy that my Department, the National Development Finance Agency and the relevant local authorities remain fully committed to delivering the social housing that PPP bundle 3 was designed to provide. These 486 social homes are very much needed and remain a priority for all parties and will instead be delivered by way of an alternative procurement and delivery strategy.
I wish to highlight that the investments already made in preliminary design work and securing planning consent is not lost and will in fact facilitate delivery of the 486 homes as expeditiously as possible under a new procurement and delivery strategy. All six sites in PPP bundle 3 have full planning permission and my officials, in conjunction with the stakeholders, will now consider and agree alternative procurement and delivery strategies for these homes.
There are three sites from PPP bundle 3 with a potential of 244 social housing homes in Dublin City Council area ready for tendering though a design and build construction programme and my Department are working closely with DCC and the NDFA to advance these tenders immediately.
I want our largest local authority, Dublin City Council, to bring forward new social housing projects on its own land using the various new-build funding schemes including design and build construction projects using the social housing investment programme. In recent years, DCC has had very low delivery rates on its own land, with 177 units delivered in 2022, 323 in 2023 and only 35 completed in 2024. As part of this decision the officials in my Department will initiate, in collaboration with the NDFA, a review of PPP bundles 4 to 7.
It has confounded and upset many people in communities where these social housing projects were due to be delivered. Two are in my constituency, Ballymun and Whitehall. These areas have high levels of social housing need. It is deeply upsetting and disappointing. Can the Minister guarantee they will be delivered according to the original planned timeframe?
I wrote my PhD and a book 14 years ago critiquing the public-private partnership model as an expensive model that would lead to delays. Unfortunately, Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael did not listen to me or the proposals we made. Will the Minister clarify whether this is the end of the PPP model for delivering social housing?
I understand people’s upset and frustration. My duty is to deliver the maximum number of homes we can but that means maximising the value so we can maximise the delivery of those homes. I will not blindly sign off at any price for social homes. These homes were frankly at an astronomical price. No doubt had I signed off on them, I would be before the Committee of Public Accounts answering questions on how I could justify approving this kind of costing for social housing units. We will deliver those social housing units as quickly as possible because I want those homes delivered. However, the PPP model is not the only opportunity for Dublin City Council to deliver social homes. I welcome more applications from DCC to be able to deliver as many social homes as possible in the city.
The Minister did not answer how many value for money assessments were undertaken before the final decision was made. How was it let get to this point where he now says it is too expensive? Public-private partnerships involve lifetime maintenance costs and not just the delivery cost. I have been heavily critical of this model of delivery of social housing. The Minister still has not answered the question: is this the end of PPPs for future bundles? Up to 3,000 homes were planned to be delivered through PPPs. What is the Department’s plan for those? Are they now scrapped as public-private partnerships? Will they be delivered by new ways? If so, will the original timeframe be maintained? Will Dublin City Council and local authorities in counties Wicklow, Sligo and Louth, which were due to deliver through PPPs, be allocated the funding to deliver them through direct build, as should have been the case originally?
It is not the end of PPP but we will review the processes to see how we can ensure that when the PPP process is used, there is value for money for the delivery of homes. We will use every method available to maximise the delivery of social homes. We will do that and we will continue to review it. We will deliver these homes as quickly as we can. We are reviewing the entire situation.
On value for money tests, one was carried out by myself. I looked at it as a Minister, as I should when it arrives on my desk. It was an outrageous cost to deliver these homes, which I was not going to stand over, and I decided this was not the way to do it or to approve it.
6. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage his views on the growing unaffordability of cost-rental schemes funded by his Department; the measures he intends to take to address this growing unaffordability; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36136/25]
Cost rental is a key element of the Housing For All strategy to improve affordability in the rental sector and to provide secure, long-term homes for moderate-income households. Though it was only introduced in 2021, cost-rental delivery is accelerating, with over 3,600 homes delivered by the end of 2024 and a substantial pipeline is now in place.
My Department is providing significant funding to delivery partners for cost rental. As well as making delivery viable, this State funding drives down rents. All cost-rental projects must achieve cost-covering rents that are at least 25% below comparable market levels. All cost-rental homes therefore present a significant saving to the tenant, relative to new market rental properties.
Cost rents are different depending on the size of dwelling and location as these have different capital costs. As rents for cost-rental homes are set according to the actual costs of delivering, managing, and maintaining the homes, recent inflation in costs has proven challenging.
All delivery partners are actively managing costs to ensure that these new homes are provided at the best rent possible.
For example, last week I attended the launch of the new cost-rental homes being provided by South Dublin County Council with the support of just under €20 million from my Department at Innovation Square, Tallaght, with rents starting at €950 per month.
Cost-rental units provide a significant saving for the tenant, and tenants who benefit from cost-rental homes are very appreciative of the rents and security of tenure these homes provide.
The Minister stated the Government has delivered 3,600 units. That sums up its delivery. There were no cost-rental units in 2020. There were 65 in 2021, 684 in 2022, 869 in 2023 and 2,027 last year. That is still below the Government's targets. The Government has never delivered and has in fact missed every target it has set over the past four or five years. On top of that, in respect of so-called affordable cost rental properties, in O'Devaney Gardens tenants are paying from €1,490 to €1,900. In Donabate, they are paying between €1,327 and €1,547. In Lota More, Cork, rents are between €1,200 and €1,407. It is not affordable if people are paying more than a third of their income in rent, no matter what the Government wants to call it.
I thank the Deputy. As he is fully aware, the cost-rental scheme did not exist in 2020 and that is why no units were delivered. On cost rental, some people cannot afford those rents and that is why we are providing a number of different solutions for people in order for them to access the homes they need at an affordable price. That may be purchase or rent and may involve cost rental, affordable purchase or social housing. We are trying to ensure that everybody, at whatever income level, has housing available to them. We are doing that across the system. The number of cost-rental units has increased over the past number of years. It is an important measure, albeit only one, of Housing for All and delivering the housing we need for people across the country, whatever their needs may be.
The Minister referred to people on moderate incomes and viability. There are people who cannot get on the social housing list because they earn too much, but they are not earning enough to qualify for cost rental because the rent is more than one third of their income. Individuals, couples and families are trapped in the middle. They are earning too much for social housing and not enough for cost-rental or affordable housing. What is the Government going to do about that? How will it help those people? The Government put those rents in place.
The Minister referred to rents which are 25% below the market value. Last week, the Government made a decision to drive rents up over the next number of years with its housing policy. Rents which are 25% below market value do not make a cost-rental property affordable. All it does is reduce rents by 25% for unbelievably expensive properties. Affordability means that people can afford to rent. It is not that someone's rent is 25% below the market value. A lot of people cannot afford these rents.
Last week, we extended rent pressure zones across the entire country, effectively creating a national rent control, which the Deputy voted for. In terms of the 25% before market-----
There was no vote taken.
The Deputy supported it.
The Deputy supported it.
I will correct the Minister-----
Did the Deputy oppose it then?
If I said something like that the Minister would-----
We are in a housing crisis. Coming in here and being snide is not the solution. If the Deputy will let me give the answer-----
I had solutions two weeks ago.
The Deputy supported it.
We supported the extension of RPZs but not the increase in rents. We did not support that.
I clarified what the Deputy said. We did come in here. I will deal with the Deputy's question rather than shouting over him.
We have clarity now. We can move on.
Cost rental is only one measure, as I have already outlined.
What about the people in the middle?
We are putting measures in place in order that everybody has the solution they need. Ultimately, we have to increase the supply of housing across the country. That is the only way we will address homelessness, high rents and ensure that people get the homes they need. We have gone from 20,000 to 30,000 homes. We will make the next step change. That is why we made rapid decisions over the past number of months and will do so again over the next few months. Rather than coming in here and criticising everything we do, perhaps the Deputy could come up with a few solutions.
I brought solutions to the House three weeks ago. The Government voted against that.
Cost rental is only one measure, as I have already outlined.
7. Deputy John Clendennen asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if his Department has undertaken a review of utility infrastructure deficits in rural towns and villages; how these deficits are currently limiting the delivery of rural housing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36137/25]
Is the Department undertaking a review of utility infrastructure deficits in rural towns and villages and on how such deficits are currently limiting delivery of rural housing? Will the Minister make a statement on that?
I thank Deputy Clendennen for raising this important issue. Unfortunately, it is still the case that some rural towns and villages across the country require investment in infrastructure, be it in my area of west Cork or the Deputy's area of Offaly. It is something the Government is committed to addressing.
Under section 10 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, it is a statutory requirement for each planning authority to include objectives in their development plan for the provision or facilitation of infrastructure. For new housing in smaller settlements, it is important to consider the type of appropriate infrastructure options that may support growth in these locations. Where no public wastewater network is available, individual homes may be provided with suitable individual wastewater treatment facilities, subject to compliance with the relevant environmental standards and requirements. Further information is available in the EPA's code of practice for domestic wastewater treatment systems.
It will be a matter for the respective local authorities to identify any other infrastructure deficits that may constrain housing delivery through their development plans. The Government is committed to investment in rural water services. As part of this commitment, my Department is investing in infrastructure to deliver improvements to water services in areas of rural Ireland where Uisce Éireann services are not currently available. More than €243 million is provided under the National Development Plan 2021-2030 over the period 2021 to 2025 for investment in non-Uisce Éireann water infrastructure. In addition, Uisce Éireann has a small towns and villages growth programme which will provide growth capacity in smaller settlements that would otherwise not be provided for in its capital investment plan.
I appreciate the reply but I want to give an example of a rural town in my area. Edenderry has a population of 8,000 and is within commuting distance of Dublin. Towns within its environs have grown, yet there will be no development from Uisce Éireann there until 2029. There is a key issue whereby theory and practice are not aligned. Offaly County Council referred to the delivery of wastewater capacity, as did Irish Water, and now Uisce Éireann is referring to the delivery of wastewater capacity by 2029. First and foremost, I would like reassurance from the Minister of State that there will be delivery. How are we holding Uisce Éireann accountable where it is not delivering?
I again thank the Deputy and appreciate him raising these concerns on behalf of the people of Offaly and specifically Edenderry. My understanding is that quite a bespoke approach is being taken in Edenderry. A wastewater treatment plant that would be sufficient to serve the population of Edenderry will be designed. In the meantime, consideration will be given to an interim solution through a developer-led process which would be designed with the intention of connecting that to the wastewater treatment plant once it is designed and finished.
The Minister, Deputy Browne, and the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, recently brought forward the national planning framework. There is a clear commitment in that to address regional development, including some of our smaller and larger towns and villages, in terms of ensuring there is investment in those areas. It recognises the need for balanced regional growth, which is a priority for the Minister, Deputy Browne, in respect of housing as well. I will come back to the Deputy with specifics on Edenderry, if that is okay.
I welcome the developer-led initiative, but a viability element has to be taken into consideration. Where developers are expected to provide an interim measure, Uisce Éireann has to engage and liaise with them to ensure that it remains economically viable for them to do so. The Uisce Éireann website is not developer friendly. The capacity register on the website provides an option of green or red. I firmly believe that lacks transparency and clarity. Where something is green, there should be identifiable measurements on the numbers for development.
Where it is red, we should have a date and timeframe for development. That indicative capacity outline needs to be there to let developers know where they can build and seize an opportunity. One question that Uisce Éireann should be able to answer, and quite frankly I do not believe it is, is what it will deliver next year in connections. I appreciate that other factors come into play but what are its current capacity and current resources to provide connections this year or next year?
On the tenet of the Deputy's original question on assessment, I really believe that is the role of a county development plan. It assesses towns and villages with regard to the various infrastructural needs within them. The national development plan will be announced shortly. Funding for Uisce Éireann will be formed, modelled and moulded around this. This is very important also.
We have seen significant increased funding for Uisce Éireann. Deputy Clendennen is absolutely right that we need to start seeing a return for this increased investment and the increased funding of the utility. With regard to Edenderry, certainly we could look at some of these projects and designs taking anything between five and seven years, but for towns such as Edenderry and other towns of a similar size this is not good enough. We want to see houses built and delivered now. The interim solution in Edenderry is, once a design is finalised, to look at the potential of developer-led infrastructure which could then be connected to the new wastewater treatment plant. This is an opportunity and it could be rolled out as a model throughout the country if it worked.
