Grace O'Sullivan (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I fully support Deputy Cowen's Bill. The one-stop shop streamlining is well in order. The Bill is timely, given that we are in a housing supply crisis and that we have so much vacant stock around the country, not only here in Dublin. Regarding the conservation aspect, I lived in the Netherlands for nine years, and one sees in streetscapes in Amsterdam or any of the other large cities that they maintain their buildings very well. There is a formula there that Ireland could use. We have absolutely magnificent old buildings, as Deputy O'Dowd said, that were well built at the time, whose materials are still good and that should be utilised. The compliance with regulations and standards should be recognised, but we need to push this on as a committee because we are still in a supply crisis. We have a lot of supply, and every time I come through the city into Leinster House or wherever else, I look at the underutilised housing supply all over the place above shop buildings and so on. It is an inefficient use of buildings and we need to move on from it.