Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

No. This is what I am talking about. We are in the middle of a housing crisis, but when we specifically asked the chair of An Bord Pleanála to point out where in the specific planning policy requirements, SPPRs, it stated there were minimum densities, he replied with the same letter that he sent two years ago, despite the fact that, after receiving that letter, the Minister declared in the Dáil that there were no minimum densities.

This is a complicated planning policy issue and this is why we do not have housing stock. Densities are pertinent to urban areas where there is transport infrastructure, so they can be dictated there. They cannot be dictated in rural Ireland on the same basis, yet that is what is happening. When county development plans are being drawn up, the Planning Regulator is insisting through his office that minimum densities are imputed as a matter of law, but they are not. That is why we have a judicial review bill of €20 million. I do not accept that the chair of an organisation like An Bord Pleanála can give an answer that he clearly knows I received previously. I asked the question again because that answer was incorrect, yet he has sent back the same reply. Either he needs to be reprimanded or he should be asked for the specific answer to the question that was put to him.