Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to address the Secretary General's remarks on land hoarding. Everything we have heard today has been the Department blaming everything that is outside of its control from interest rates to inflation and now land banks. The reality is that land hoarding is a false narrative and if it does exist, it is very much in a very small minority of cases. It certainly does not exist in County Wexford and I doubt very much if it exists in the Secretary General's home county of Waterford. It may exist in a small percentage of cases here in Dublin.

We need to get to grips with the real issue, which is planning policy. Mr. Doyle has now been Secretary General for three years, in which time he has had much correspondence from me pointing out where planning policy is, in effect, causing problems of viability and all the other issues. Mr. Doyle is well aware that 60% of the planning permissions granted will never commence because of viability, and 70% of those not granted will never commence because of viability. The Department blames all the outside influences, however, and then if planning is to commence, it wastes the taxpayers' money by purchasing property that is essentially driven up by the Department's lack of action.