Mr. Pat Farrell:

I thank the committee for affording us the opportunity to be here. The work the committee is departing on in pre-legislative scrutiny of the draft Bill is important. We wish the committee well in that work and are here to support it in any way we can.

IIP is backed by institutional capital, mainly long-term pension funds, as distinct from the equity providers who came into the Irish market after the global financial crash and acquired distressed assets which needed to be acquired and disposed of to activate the market again. Since then, longer term pension investors have entered the market and they are the members I represent. They are long-term investors in the Irish market and long-term holders of assets. They have approximately €20 billion invested in the Irish market in different areas, including retail, logistics, hospitality, offices and especially housing.

I ask the committee to imagine the benefits that investment has brought to Ireland. If members were to stand on the plinth of Leinster House and look across at Molesworth Street, they would see the way that the entire street has been imagined, repurposed and largely rebuilt in the past decade. This was enabled by institutional capital investment. On Kildare Street, there is a development beside the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment that includes a sympathetic restoration of a Georgian building into modern offices. On Dawson Street, the same has happened. On Dame Street, there has been huge investment in the iconic former Central Bank building, which is being refurbished to bring a strong addition and new experience to the area. In areas like Cherrywood, we are building a whole new town in which approximately 30,000 people will be accommodated in a fully integrated campus that involves a major commitment to place-making. All the facilities, including worship facilities, retail facilities, shopping experiences and recreational facilities are integrated on one site. That gives the committee a sense of what we are about.

We are the source of almost all the new rental supply for the private market, which the committee will be aware is under pressure due to the exodus of smaller landlords. We are building or funding 60% of the private market output. We are also important providers of debt capital for most of the small and medium builders. That has an impact countrywide.

I will turn to the business of the meeting. While our members are committed to Ireland and are attracted by its strong fundamentals, the planning system needs radical reform. We are drinking in the last-chance saloon. If we do not get it right this time, our international reputation will be at stake. The consensus among our members who have exposure to policy and planning systems across the world is that, at the current juncture, the Irish planning system is among the most difficult to navigate. There is no element of predictability or certainty of outcome and this is adding significant additional cost, uncertainty and risk in an area where investment is badly needed to deliver the required number of new homes and other critical infrastructure the country needs.

I will not go any further. We made a detailed submission in which we included a number of observations about the draft Bill. I am happy to engage with the committee in the next few hours and to respond to any questions members may have.