John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This matter has become extremely important for people in my constituency, Dublin South-West, which comprises areas which continue to be developed and in which there is ongoing construction in growing suburbs such as Ballycullen, Knocklyon, Citywest and Tallaght. I am grateful for the insight into some of the mysteries of An Bord Pleanála - they are mysteries to the public in terms of how it works. An Bord Pleanála has made some decisions that have had a positive impact and I will discuss these briefly. However, others defy logic. I am keen to impress a message on all the contributors to take away today. None of them mentioned quality of life or the families, couples and individuals involved. Many in my constituency are in their mid-20s or mid-30s and have returned home to live with their parents - who were not expecting that to happen - in order to save to purchase homes. They have discovered many of the planning applications in the constituency are build-to-rent. We do not seem to pay any attention to the struggles and challenges that people face. It is all very technical, cold and sterile language. What we are about really is the provision of homes. I will say a little more about that.

As my colleague, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, stated, we supported the SHD process on the basis that it would put homes into play more quickly. As a long-standing local authority member for close to 20 years, I have views on that. It is an imperfect system. We know that of the 16,000 odd units granted permission under the SHD process, some 6,000 odd have been constructed. The experience in my constituency is that this process has not delivered homes. It has delivered housing units, if it has delivered anything at all. However, co-living, student accommodation and build-to-rent applications are predominately the nature of the applications that have been made. We need to bring the human element back into this.

Rents for modest homes in different parts of my constituency start at €2,000 and rise. Of course, it is in a developer's interests and in the interests of speculators to build to rent. The equivalent mortgage is between €1,000 and €1,100. I know of multiple examples of constituents who have managed to comply with Central Bank rules and who may have been paying €1,800 or €1,900 per month for rent. Then they succeeded in getting a mortgage because they had a substantial down payment or deposit with the banks. They found they were paying €1,050 to €1,100 per month for the mortgage, saving €700 or €800 and increasing disposable income.

An Bord Pleanála must listen to this. We are talking about people's lives. It is not a question of units, construction or speculation. It is the biggest investment for these people in their lifetime. Most of the witnesses look close to my age. An Bord Pleanála needs to bring some humanity to the decisions it is making. It needs to understand there are people behind this.

Constituents of mine include parents in their mid-60s who were looking forward to retirement. They do not begrudge their adult children coming home but it was not what they anticipated. Since their children cannot afford rents, they are coming home. One mother told me her son was coming home and she did not know what he was doing but he had come home to reflect on whether to save or leave. It is very much in the hands of the designers, planners, overseers and implementers to come up with ideas and practical plans for people rather than for speculators, builders or developers. It should be for the end users, the people who are going to make their lives in these places.

There are several specific issues I want to raise relating to my constituency that concern planning applications.