Housing meeting in Leinster House

stages of planning which will potentially yield 162 housing units.

Funding of circa €36m has been sanctioned by the Department for these schemes.

These were discussed at length with particular reference to the stages, planning process and progress.

Rapid Build was also discussed and the Council is considering this method of delivery for future schemes.

The recent advertisement of five of the above schemes to Part 8 Planning Consultation stage was welcomed by all as a significant step.

The Department indicated they were satisfied with progress and pointed out that whereas the approval process is acknowledged to be labour intensive.

There is a significant investment by the State in Social Housing and consequently necessary controls on this level of expenditure must be strictly adhered to.

Based on current target dates for all stages and no anticipated delay, it is expected that some construction activity will commence in 2017.

Other matters up for discussion included the Public Private Partnership on the Convent Land, Wicklow town and the development in Ballybeg, Rathnew.

Reference was made to an October advertisement seeking expressions of interest from approved housing bodies to develop on local authority land.

Approved housing bodies are being sought to develop land in the ownership of the local authority where the local authority or Department may not be in a position to develop in the short-term.

Also included in the talks were Part V negotiations with developers, the Capital Assistance Scheme, homelessness prevention and strategy, the roll out of the Housing Assistance Payment in Wicklow, the recent Social Housing Needs Assessment and housing acquisitions

Other issues tackled included vacant houses in the ownership of Financial Institutions and the potential conversion to social housing.

The TDs, councillors and officials also talked about the recently adopted Part V Policy and the Acquisition of Housing Units Policy and both of their potential to supply housing units.

Fifty-nine properties have been acquired by the council at a cost of €12.6m since 2015.

The phased development, closely adhering to the five pillars of Rebuilding Ireland, was positively welcomed and it was agreed to continue to develop the productive relationship exhibited by the meeting. THE TEENAGER has just been freed after serving a five-year sentence with our local orthodontist. The treatment cost an arm and a leg as well as the odd kidney or two but now five long years later he has the most amazing set of gnashers ever seen on a 14-year-old Irish boy.

I’m showing him off everywhere I go. In the butchers the other day someone stopped to say hello. ‘ This is my son,’ I said, pushing him forward like an exhibit. ‘Look at his teeth. Aren’t they amazing?’

My son is of a generation who will take perfect teeth for granted. It’s just part of growing up as far as they’re concerned – a little blip on the landscape of adolescence. In my day, only the lucky ones got orthodontic treatment. I was one of the lucky ones but on discovering the opposite sex, threw my brace down the toilet, got walloped by my mother and ended up looking a bit like Janet Street Porter.

That wasn’t going to happen to My Boy. My Boy was going to have a killer smile – if it killed me, I decided when he was very young.

These days he has a tendency to lurk behind him whenever he is with me in public because obviously he wants to pretend he’s not with me, but since last week he hasn’t had a chance. I’ve been grabbing him by the arm and hissing at him to smile at complete strangers.

‘Will you stop doing that. I am NOT a performing bear,’ he informed me after I introduced him to a neighbour he’d never met before and made him smile for her. ‘No,’ I replied. ‘You are not a performing bear. But you’ve cost us a bloody fortune so I’m making sure I get my money’s worth.’

At a funeral I marched him up the aisle to meet his great aunts. ‘Show Aunty Betty, Aunty Pat and Aunty Mary your teeth.’ He obeys reluctantly to approving murmurs from the aunts. ‘ Oh. My. God. He’s gorgeous,’ they declared unanimously. The teenager nudges me to one side. ‘Right. That’s it. I’ve had enough. Stop telling people about my teeth and getting me to smile at random strangers. It’s weird.’ I’d had my fun so I agree to stop much to his relief.

An hour later in a local restaurant I notice that he’s beaming from ear to ear, showing off his Colgate smile like there’s no tomorrow. I follow his gaze and see a pretty girl about his own age smiling back at him from a nearby table.

My work here is done. It was worth every penny – even the kidney.