Spokesperson on Housing, Planning, and Local Government, Eoin Ó Broin, blamed the Department of Housing's "cumbersome approval, procurement and tendering rules".
He said: "The Department of Housing has itself stated that this process can take up to two years and involves a four stage approvals process. This leads to repeated and unnecessary toing and froing between the department and respective local authorities.
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"Sinn Féin believe that this procurement process for social housing could be substantially shortened, while maintaining transparency and building quality and also including social clauses in public procurement contracts.
"The Action Plan for Housing adopted an important recommendation of the Dáil Housing and Homeless Committee report, which is the establishment of a Procurement Centre of Excellence in the Housing Agency. This is a welcome development; however more can be done to speed up the process.
"Sinn Féin believes a one stage approval process could be put in place and it would be ran on the basis of reporting by exception instead of engaging in a time consuming back and forth with the Department.
"This would be complemented with the creation of a new integrated design and build framework agreement. This would cover the design and construction of new builds. This kind of framework agreement would be suitable for a long term programme of work and would cut down on onerous tendering procedures."
(CD/JP)
