Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 12 November 2020

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government

Estimates for Public Services 2020
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Supplementary)

Photo of Paul McAuliffePaul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

To return to the issue of local authorities, the €900 million commercial rates waiver has been very significant at a time when local authorities have been hugely impacted by Covid, both in terms of spend and reduced income. In some local authorities, rates are not the same percentage of income that they might be in smaller counties. I name Dublin County Council. I hope the Minister will do everything he can to assure them the support he has given this year will be matched next year. I say that in a soft way because it will be hard to make commitments given that we do not know what next year will be. However, I ask the Minister to do everything in his power to assure local authorities that they can budget for next year in an uncertain year.

The community call has been hugely important and one of the key ways in which the Minister has engaged on the ground with local authorities. It is a great example of how local authorities deliver. I have questions about how we continue to do that in the Covid times of 2021 and about how, in non-Covid times, we can use the community call better.

I come back to Deputy Ó Broin's point about Oscar Traynor Road, which is in my constituency. One of the things this committee will want to see is a change of direction in housing and the Minister will also want to see that. We want to see public housing on public lands and we want to see delivery. While compromises have had to be made with the previous Government in this area, at some point we will have to draw a line in the sand and say, "New policy, new Government, new way of delivering housing". At the same time, we want to make sure that does not result in a chilling effect on delivering housing. It is a difficult balancing act that the Minister has to perform but there are concerns. The Estimates need to reflect the ability of local authorities to manage big projects like that. We have to make sure local authorities have the skills in house to be able to deliver these products and not rely on the private sector.

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