Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Why are we making it such a long period? I fully understand it is a strategic plan and we cannot chop and change every two years. Nevertheless, if we look at what happened demographically between 2016 and 2022, there were significant levels of increased economic growth, which have led to return migration of Irish folks beyond what was predicted in 2016.

We have an increase in inward migration, again, driven by economic growth with people coming through work visa programmes and the international protection system.

We also have a very unusual event in the war in Ukraine and a significant number of people are being given temporary protection.

There must surely be a mechanism, if, within five years there is a census and that census starts to throw up very significant changes which would not be typically normal under a long duration. Surely there should be a possibility to review the national planning framework in that context. If one is only saying that the outer limit is every ten years, and if it takes two years to produce a final report, which is the current position, that is 12 years. The data could be so out of date. How do we ensure that the underpinning assumptions of the national planning framework are as up-to-date as possible and, where required, changes are driven by an outer limit as set by this section of this amendment and by data in real time as it is developing? Otherwise, one is aiming at targets and we could have a discussion around the underpinning housing need and demand assessment, HDNA, targets for the current national planning framework, NPF, being out of date on the very day they are used, let alone several years on.