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

This is a sensible amendment for two reasons. If, for example, a local authority is doing a development plan, co-ordinated area plan or priority urban area plan, and if the local authority is of the view that there is a need for affordable housing, one of the ways of ensuring that can be delivered is through making such a zoning available. Let us keep in mind that zoning can be for things for consideration or it can be much more specific than that. In fact, if it was more specific than that, it could be very helpful in terms of land values. I refer, for example, to when land is designated for affordable housing by the LDA and the land value calculation is different from the open market value because it is bolted into the necessary legislation. The Poolbeg strategic development zone is a really good example of why something like this would have been a powerful tool for Dublin City Council. I say this because, as the Minister of State knows, councillors unanimously inserted a provision to that SDZ to have an additional 19% affordability on top of the 10% social rate. If they had been able to zone the land in accordance with that, when the Ronan Group bought that site it would have paid a lower value for the land, which would then have been zoned for the delivery of affordable homes.

One of the reasons the Department and Dublin City Council are currently not able to progress the delivery of affordable homes on that site, despite an “in principle” agreement having been reached last year between the Department, Dublin City Council, Lioncourt and the Ronan Group, is that the Ronan Group paid such a high value for the land. It was reported in the newspapers at the time to have been 25% above the guide price. It is simply impossible under any Government scheme, with any combination of Government subsidies, to deliver any genuine affordability to rent or buy for that. In fact, if the councillors on Dublin City Council had this tool when they were setting the Poolbeg west SDZ, it would have almost guaranteed the delivery of affordable homes. It would have been much better, of course, if Dublin City Council had been given the money by the Department to buy the land, but that is a separate issue. That is a real-life, practical example of how allowing for such provision would be enormously beneficial, not only because it would help deliver the homes, but also because it would constrain land values. That in itself would be a good thing as well.

Clearly, the Government has chosen not to do this, but not because it is not appropriate. It is because the Government does not want to do so. At the same time, the Government is struggling to deliver genuinely affordable homes with either of the affordable housing funds that are available through the necessary legislation. Prices for buying and renting continue to rise regularly.

This is a very sensible amendment. If it does not accept this wording, the Government should give a commitment to look at the matter again and come back to it on Report Stage. If we do not use tools like this, it will become increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to deliver genuinely affordable homes to working people for prices they can actually afford, both to rent and buy, particularly in the big urban centres where the land values are so high.