Mr. Niall Cussen:

I thank the Deputy for his comprehensive array of questions. On the question on where the policies were decided, let me answer for the benefit of viewers and, indeed, the public. The Minister can publish statutory guidelines under section 28 of the Planning Act. There are around 30 of those, some of which date back quite a while. Some of them, such as those on density, date back a couple of years. The guidelines are published from time to time and there are consultative processes involved. The views of the public are sought. Usually, there is a large group of experts who advise the Minister. Again, going back to what Deputy McAuliffe said, there are always balancing acts accounting for a range of views and so on. The density guidelines date back a couple of years. As Deputy Ó Broin said, the Department recently issued a circular to local authorities that was not revising those guidelines but maybe drawing out some of their more salient elements. I might ask Ms Anne Marie O'Connor to contribute on this because some of the issues that arose regarding density of development arose in the context of some of our assessments of plans. Ms O'Connor can give an example of what arose and how we address it. We are quite comfortable with the circular that was issued in that it highlights some of the approaches that are needed, particularly to managing the development of the edges of smaller towns and villages. What is wanted is a blend of densities, ranging from higher densities in the centres of towns and villages to lower densities at the edges, remembering that towns and villages perform an important role in planning, providing an alternative to the pressure that often arises for one-off housing or sporadic housing at the edges of towns and villages. Local circumstances have to be accounted for carefully. One must judge carefully the densities that might be regarded as appropriate in particular locations. The circular was really bringing out some of the detail in the previous guidelines.

On the last question, on compact growth, much of the housing delivery has tended to be in suburban or greenfield locations. That is a point of concern. We highlighted it in our annual report for 2019. We conducted an analysis of house-building trends. We will be looking at these more closely in the context of our 2020 annual report. This gets to the heart of the broader housing challenge, which I am not here to discuss in detail, but there is no doubt that there are challenges ahead in delivering housing at the quantum and of the quality required, and ensuring affordability in our city and town cores. The Government has been very clear about this. People need homes. For various reasons, it seems that it is challenging to deliver those homes, be they for purchase or rental, in a way that makes them affordable if they are closer to city and town cores.

Greenfield development is fairly straightforward. The developer opens a site and gets stuck into it and so on. Working on brownfield sites, urban regeneration and renewal require a very integrated, intricate approach. One is working within existing communities that sometimes have very different views on what is appropriate in certain locations. It tends to be more contentious and difficult. Even though the infrastructure is often much more available, it can sometimes be very difficult to assemble sites and make them work with the existing fabric, but that is why the urban regeneration and development funds and various measures the Government is putting in place are so vital. I might just invite Ms Anne Marie O'Connor-----