Conference Chairperson &Opening Remarks

Brendan Barrett, Communications Consultant

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Affordable Housing Bill 2021

Gwen Perry, Head of Affordable Housing Unit, The Housing Agency

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Housing for All: what solutions does the new platform offer for homelessness and housing insecurity

• Briefly outline the scale and depth of the homeless problem in Ireland
• What are the main commitments in relation to homelessness/housing precarity in ‘Housing for All’
• Strengths of this approach
• Weaknesses/gaps/issues with this approach
• Proposals for what should happen next

Mike Allen, Director of Advocacy, Focus Ireland

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Creating a Planning System That Balances Public Accessibility & Participation

• Efficient and robust decision making – allowing for proper planning and sustainable development, including deliverable housing schemes.
• Lessons learnt from SHD
• Negative view of public /local politicians to all forms of housing

Rachel Kenny, Director of Planning, An Bord Pleanala

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A value shift in housing: why the state & ‘not-for-profits’ must be central in fixing the Irish housing crisis

• What is the aim and vision of current housing policy? Is it adequate to meet the scale of the crisis?
• Is the funding allocation in housing the right approach, what is needed?
• How can the state play a more central role in ensuring the delivery of affordable homes as social housing, cost rental and affordable purchase?
• What is actually affordable housing?
• How can a right to housing as a new value framework provide a solution including the Constitutional change?

Dr. Rory Hearne, Assistant Professor, Department of Applied Social Studies, Maynooth University

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Ongoing supply issues – Does the government need to assess its policy response in light of the impacts of covid-19?

Kieran McQuinn, Research Professor, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)

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Housing Prices – Potential Artificial Bubble – Outlook Based On Historical Trends

• Irish house prices – a review of historical trends and outlook on what is expected
• What is the potential for an artificial bubble in house prices?

Marian Finnegan, Managing Director, Residential & Advisory, Sherry Fitzgerald

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Addressing Incredible Time Lapses – Identifying a suitable Site For Development and Bringing it to being ‘Shovel Ready’

• What is housing for the public good?
• What happens when the public good takes on local interests?
• The role of local advocacy
• The role of fiscal policy
• The role of design
• Why public sector housing costs more than private sector housing?

Claire McManus, Chair the RIAI Housing Taskforce, RIAI Spokesperson on Housing, Director of JFOC Architects.

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Problems with Investment Funds in the Housing Market and Shared Equity – an AHB perspective on Making Cost rental and Affordable Housing work in Ireland.

• Vultures or doves – does it matter?
• How do you decide value for money?
• Who determines what’s affordable, and how?
• Where does value sit, and for how long?
• Why differentiate between houses and apartments? Its all housing
• If you could wave a wand, what would the result look like?
• Case examples

John Hannigan, CEO, Circle Voluntary Housing Association

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Legal Nightmares – Housing Projects

• Legal Nightmares – Housing Delivery
• What are the typical legal hurdles that projects face and how to avoid them;
• Conveyancing issues;
• Case examples.  

Neil Dunne, Partner,Byrne Wallace