Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is not the market's appetite to deliver. I am back to An Bord Pleanála's insistence in some instances of usurping the local development plan and insisting on 35 dwellings per hectare, and in rural areas particularly, which means a mix of apartments and a mix of houses. Essentially, one cannot build the apartment for less than one can sell it for. Those developments, therefore, do not go ahead. To my mind, to the developers' minds and to the minds of the people who are looking for housing this is not solving our housing problem. It is creating it. We may have lots of applications and lots of planning granted but the significant issue is that they are not viable at 35 dwellings per hectare in areas where apartments are just not suitable. Rural and small towns in Ireland do not have the infrastructure. It is a bit chicken and egg. We need to put the infrastructure in to allow people to travel by train to these areas, or some other form of transport in order that they are not just the ghettos of the future. This is why they are not being built. That is the difficulty I have. We need to see where An Bord Pleanála is coming up with this. It is not in the guidelines, it is not anywhere. I have raised this in the Dáil. An Bord Pleanála is doing it persistently and it is preventing housing stock from increasing because the development of housing stock is not going ahead. The grant for planning may be there but it is not viable on the basis of 35 dwellings per hectare. This is a significant issue, and counter to what Deputy Catherine Murphy is saying, in that we are going to continue with HAP if we are not going to be able to increase the housing stock.