Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I wish to ask a question of the Minister, Deputy Donohoe. There are often references to planning objections and so on in terms of delivery. Is it fair to say that this is a bit overstated? The Department produces the IGEES report, which suggests that this is not really a problem. The vast majority of planning permissions are granted. There are some that are objected to, but the vast number of planning permissions granted far exceeds the number of commencements. There are far more planning permissions out there that could be acted on, but are just not, than there are planning objections holding up development. I am not saying it never happens, but, anecdotally, that is the case in my area. People make submissions and that is what the system is for, but the number of projects that are not objected to and that advance, or for which the planning permission is given and do not advance, exceeds by multiples of about ten the number of applications held up because of objections. Is this fair comment based on studies and surveys that have been done by the Department? Is it not the case that the bigger issue seems to be other delays that we cannot quite get to the bottom of but have something to do with things like procurement, tendering rules or bits of the system not joining up with each other? Is it that the land is not serviced so we cannot start to do anything? I refer to instances where, for example, Irish Water has not put in the necessary infrastructure in place.

There is another problem in that we have not quite figured out who we will get to do this work. What I really want the Minister to comment on is delivery. Is there a reasonable case to be made, even as a sort of experiment, for trying to develop the delivery model? Covid is actually a good example of how we delivered when we had to. I refer, for example, to the delivery of the vaccine programme. There was a will to do it and there was centralisation, even if there were multiple contractors, or whatever we want to call them, involved. There was a centralised drive and the programme was delivered. Is there a case for the state to have some sort of core company that would achieve the same thing when it comes to key infrastructure and housing projects? The State would have its own construction capacity but would also possibly benefit from economies of scale in the context of machinery, raw materials and so on, and have its own labour capacity and skills in key areas. Is there a serious case for us having that? There would also be the private bit but the State would have its own construction capacity. Has the Minister looked at this seriously? Would he consider looking at it? We should look at this in the context of delivering key housing and infrastructure projects to see if such a model could add a new dynamism.

In framing my final question, I will repeat what I have heard from some people who are involved in sport in the Liberties. The people in question described to me the absolute lack of sports facilities in the area. Near St. Teresa's Gardens, there are two former sports pitches that have been sitting derelict and fenced up for about a decade. I walked past there at the weekend and said, "Jesus, this is disgrace". They are just sitting there. The guys involved in SportingLiberties have said that kids are having to trespass to find a pitch to play on because there are no pitches and yet here are two in public ownership that are fenced off completely. The guy from SportingLiberties asked if Dublin City Council burned down tomorrow would it take ten years to rebuild Dublin City Council in order for Dublin City Council to function? We all know the answer is "No, it would not". But when it comes to providing sporting facilities for young people who have absolutely none in the Liberties area we are sitting on two former sports pitches that are sitting there rotting and kids are having to trespass and endanger their own physical health and safety in order to kick a ball around. Is this not a serious problem? We need a more centralised and co-ordinated drive to deliver these things than we seem to have, which is a deeply fragmented kind of system where things do not join up.