Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 3:

In page 6, between lines 5 and 6, to insert the following:“Report on the causes of delays in the construction of housing

3. The Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government is to report within three months of the enactment of the Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Act 2016 on the causes of delays in the construction of housing, including—

(a) delays caused by the hoarding of land by landowners and developers,

(b) delays attributable to developers during the planning and pre-planning process,

(c) delays related to tendering rules and processes in the case of local authority own development,

and on the measures needed to address them.”.

The purpose of the amendment is to ask the Minister to present a report on the causes of delays in the planning process. Our information, from our experience as members of councils and reports from the Irish Planning Institute, is that the causes of delays in housing coming on stream have more to do with builders than anything else. There is a huge amount of land being sat on, for which planning permissions have been granted. Dublin City Council has seen figures that suggest there are 28,000 planning permissions, with thousands more in the pipeline. Dublin is not the only location in which there is homelessness and a housing crisis, but it is a key location. The conclusion is that developers are hoarding land. the head of NAMA says the same thing, even about NAMA. This issue came up at the housing committee and I hope the work done by it will count for something.

In one council area, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, there were no delays whatsoever. Councillors believe delays are not caused at local council level, although a council may delay a project by four weeks or so.

The Minister presented the need for overturning many of the checks on developers at local council and community level as being vital, however, we have not seen the evidence presented. Even the Irish Planning Institute has made that point, so it is not confined to people on the left. We think it is vital that the Minister conduct an investigation within three months of the enactment of the Bill outlining the cause of delays and the percentage attributable to developers, landholders and the planning process and then present a report. In this regard the tendering process is a key delay of local authority house building. The local authorities are not going ahead with house building under this Government but when they do the obligation on them to tender out the contract to build is a cause of delay and acts as an impediment to houses coming on stream.

During the 1970s when between 8,000 and 9,000 houses were built a year to resolve the then housing crises, it was done by direct labour as the local authority councils had their own staff and would have employed a builder to do certain aspects. The local authority process was much more ready to go. We have a housing crisis and we should not be putting neoliberal obligations on local authorities that they must put the contract out to the private sector to build. It was for those reasons that I tabled this amendment.