Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

To respond to the Deputy's question, and obviously I will not speak about the specific sites referred to, under Housing for All, housing of all tenure types is being delivered at scale by this Government. The record speaks for itself in this regard. It is starting to have an impact on the ground right across the country and in Dublin as well. I refer members to Part 7 in the context of housing strategy and supply. First, I do not agree with Deputy O'Callaghan that the hands of councillors are tied and, in my view, the text backs this up. It states:

Prior to making a development plan under Part 3, a planning authority shall prepare a strategy (in this Act referred to as a “housing strategy”) for the purpose of ensuring that the housing development strategy makes adequate provision for the housing of the existing and future population of the area of the development plan in accordance with the proper planning and sustainable development of the area.

Before I go into subsection (6), under the Affordable Housing Act, affordable housing is undefined. A housing strategy shall include an estimate of the amount of housing for the purpose of the provision of social housing and support within the meaning of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act of 2009, housing for eligible applicants within the meaning of Part 2 of the Affordable Housing Act, and cost-rental dwellings, which is the Vienna model that appeared in the programme for Government, within the meaning of Part 3 of the Affordable Housing Act. They are there for councillors as they develop their housing strategy to make provisions for those tenure types within the housing strategy that will form part of a development plan. That is the appropriate place and that is where the powers lie for councillors to be ambitious in terms of what they want to put into their housing strategies.