Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I might not need the full ten. I welcome Mr. McCarthy and his team. It is great to have them here.

Given the Department's role in respect of local government and its policy remit, it is an important player in this debate. Mr. McCarthy explained in detail how the planning of our cities and towns was going to be key and that building 40% of new housing on infill and brownfield sites would be required to proceed. Speaking as a public representative, that is an important initiative that needs to be driven forward. Will the Department get that support from the elected members of local authorities? Most of the 40% will fall under the remit of county development plans and, consequently, local councillors. How will the resistance in some cities and towns to high-rise developments play out for the Department's proposals? Members of some local authorities are anxious about high-rise developments, so this obvious issue needs to be addressed. Should legislation determine how county development plans are drafted or how would Mr. McCarthy go about ensuring brownfield sites in cities are developed and, if appropriate, developments go upwards?

Part of Mr. McCarthy's presentation was on solar farms and the lack of associated guidelines. Will he elaborate? I took a considerable interest in the large number of solar farm applications that had been granted in recent years in my part of the world. There is a lack of planning guidelines. There seems to be a reluctance on the part of Mr. McCarthy's Department and that of the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Denis Naughten, to get involved in drafting and proposing such guidelines.

We have guidelines and renewed guidelines for the wind energy but we do not seem to have guidelines for solar farms. Whether it is for a community that might have an issue with a solar farm or for the developer, we must consider security of tender because a gap exists. Perhaps the Secretary General will clarify the following. Does he believe solar farm guidelines are important? Does he believe that we should seek clarity in that market? If so, does he think a body of work will be done?

Amazingly, there is a proposal to build 500,000 units between now and 2040, which is a very significant sum. As one will have seen from the budget yesterday, the local authority element will be a considerable part of that development. I presume that the Department is proposing that there will be an exceptionally high energy standard for those units. How long does the Secretary General think it will take local authorities to retrofit the entire housing stock of 136,000 local authority houses and bring them up to standard? It will take a considerable body of work and finance to retrofit 136,000 units. Where does he see that project fitting into the proposals? Is there a timeline for the project?

Electric cars is a significant issue. The Secretary General mentioned electric cars and the appropriate infrastructure towards the tail end of his speech. In 2010, a programme to provide 1,000 charging points for electric cars was rolled out. Will legislation be invoked to ensure charging points are included in planning permissions? There is a vast sum of money attached to local government and local government developments at present. I am not aware of any social housing or formal housing project that has charging points attached. Where does the Secretary General think the Department's guidelines, planners and engineers will be involved in any plans received? If there was a plan to build a local authority housing estate in Cork tomorrow morning, would the Department insist that one of the qualifying criteria for planning permission be the installation of electric charging points? Should the local government section and local authorities take the initiative and ensure we have so many electric charging points per housing estate? I believe that we should have such core infrastructure and ensure it is attached to planning permission. If the local government does not provide such infrastructure then it is very hard for developers to do so. When does the Secretary General propose to move that kind of technology and infrastructure into the existing housing stock? By investing a significant amount of money in such infrastructure would show leadership. Significant developments, and I mean Part VIII planning permissions, have been granted throughout the length and breadth of this country but we have not seen much infrastructure to allow for charging points. I ask the Secretary General to clarify these issues.