Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1059:

In page 570, between lines 34 and 35, to insert the following:

"Entitlement to Compensation

389. A person from whom land is acquired pursuant to a compulsory purchase order to which this Part applies is entitled to be paid compensation in accordance with the subsequent provisions of this Part.".

We have this large group of amendments. However, they all relate to the same issue of compulsory acquisition of land and refer to this Part. In some ways, how the amendments have been arranged does not make sense but that is an issue of form rather than content.

I will speak to the purpose of the amendments. I will break them into two sets, if I may. The first set runs from amendment Nos. 1059 to 1074. They are based on the draft acquisition of land Bill appended to the 2023 Law Reform Commission report on compulsory acquisition. These sections restate, in accordance with the commission's recommendations, the current rules governing compensation for compulsory acquisition generally, together with the commission's proposed reforms dealt with in chapter 5 of that report. The commission proposed that the basic rules of compensation, namely, market value, severance, injurious affection and disturbance, are not in need of reform but should be set out clearly in one single code. It recommended some refinements and improvements, such as a presumption that the value of land lying 10 m or more below the surface is nil, unless it is proven to be of greater value. We have taken on board all the commission's recommendations in these amendments, which it argues will simplify the compulsory acquisition process.

This relates to the bigger problem of the current compulsory purchase order, CPO, process taking far too long. That is generally agreed. With thousands of properties lying vacant and a scourge of vacancy and dereliction countrywide, there is an understanding that we need to streamline and simplify the process, and make it more efficient for local authorities to purchase homes and sites for the sake of the common good. We believe that implementing the commission's proposal will go some way towards creating a smoother and more efficient CPO process. This first set of amendments runs from amendment No. 1059 to 1074 and is based on sections 60 to 76 of the draft Bill appended to the 2023 Law Reform Commission report on compulsory acquisition.

There is a second set of amendments in this group. It comprises the last two amendments Nos. 1075 and 1076. They are based on the Labour Party Bill, proposed by my colleague, Deputy Kelly, the Acquisition of Development Land (Assessment of Compensation) Bill 2021, which passed Second Stage in the Dáil on 3 June 2021. This Bill essentially seeks to implement aspects of the Kenny report. The amendments provide for a cap on compensation, as outlined in amendment No. 1075, such that it will not exceed 125% of the current use value of development land. That is set out in the proposed new section 389(3) under that amendment. This relates to land where the open market value exceeds its current use value, as the Kenny report recommended. The purpose of these amendments is to reduce the capacity for speculation on land. The Kenny report is often referred to as a very important proposal in tackling that issue. We know that land speculation and sitting on vacant land are contributing significantly not only to the vacancy crisis but to the cost of delivering housing. We spoke at length previously about vacancy, dereliction and trying to get more effective ways of tackling this. We have been trying to encourage people to use even the existing mechanisms of tackling vacancy and dereliction. We want to see change made on this. At this point, we need to see legislative intervention in line with the Kenny report.

Land is a finite resource. We know it should be used for housing or amenities, not for the purpose of speculation or land hoarding. We currently have legislation equipping local authorities to use CPOs but cost is a principal restraining factor, as is delay. Local authorities simply cannot afford to acquire land on the necessary scale for the purpose of development for housing at open market rates where, in many cases, those rates greatly exceed the current use value of the land. The availability of land at a reasonable price for housing, especially in our main urban centres, such as Dublin, has been a deep cause of concern for almost 50 years. We all know the Kenny report arose out of those concerns. It remains relevant today. We are keen to see it implemented in this way.

The main proposal from the Kenny report was that local authorities should be enabled to acquire potential development land, designated by the High Court, at existing use value plus 25%. While the proposal initially raised objections that it might amount to a proposal that was contrary to the Constitution because it would constitute an unjust attack on property rights, in our view, case law clarifies that the State is entitled to regulate and interfere with property rights. That is not just our view. It is what case law has established. However, the State may not regulate in a manner that constitutes disproportionate interference with those rights. An interference is proportionate if it has due regard to the principles of social justice and the exigencies of the common good. We are in a severe housing crisis. When we have such high levels of vacancy and dereliction throughout the country, social justice and the common good must surely require that landowners should not accrue huge gains simply by sitting on vacant land and seeking land value to increase, without any development for the purpose of housing. On the constitutional issues, we secured the opinion of Feichín McDonagh SC on Deputy Kelly's original Acquisition of Development Land (Assessment of Compensation) Bill 2021. That opinion endorsed our approach. It stated there was a strong case that it would be constitutional to legislate along the lines originally proposed in the Kenny report. That Bill was also endorsed by the Think-tank for Action on Social Change, TASC, in its report on land and housing.

Given that towns and cities cannot expand ever outwards, with amendments Nos. 1075 and 1076 we aim to capture the overvaluing not just of agricultural land but brownfield sites in urban areas. I will refer again to the Law Reform Commission. When it looked at proposals for compulsory acquisition of development land, it stated:

While there may be some constitutional and legal issues involved—and the Commission presents an overview of some ... —many of the relevant policy considerations are outside the remit of the Commission and are more appropriately resolved by the Oireachtas.

This a matter the Oireachtas is entitled to legislate on. It has been a long time since the Kenny report came out. It has been subject to extensive debate. We are in a housing disaster, however. We are at a point where current measures to tackle vacancy and dereliction have simply not worked. In our view, now is the time to proceed with these provisions, which have already been debated and passed Second Stage in the Dáil through the Bill we put forward in 2021. I await the Minister's response.