Ms Anne Colgan:

The matter I would like to take up relates to the percentage of homes and prices. The proposed amendment dealing with section 75 of the Bill provides that the Minister may set a percentage of housing higher or lower than the percentage set out in section 73. The difficulty with this is that it assumes a Minister can make a determination in any part of the country as to what the requirements are in that particular county in terms of social and affordable housing. To us, that seems extraordinary when the local authority, through its housing needs demand assessment, has the detailed and granular knowledge of the requirements and needs of housing in that area. It does not make sense to us that it would be possible at central level to make a determination for the county. As the legislation is framed at the moment, the Minister would make that determination on a site-by-site basis. That is rather strange and difficult to comprehend.

There is another reference in that section of the Bill. It states that the Minister, in making a determination about that percentage, will have regard to what the State requires in terms of percentages of social and affordable housing.

The message this sends us is that this provision is being included in order to manage budgets. Since the State will have to take account of its overall expenditure on social and affordable housing, the Minister will be influenced by that consideration in making a decision about what is required on any site. That will bring uncertainty to the process and undermine it. We want this section of the Bill to be amended so that setting the percentage on LDA sites of social and affordable housing or, if there is such provision on any one site, market price housing will be left to local authorities.