Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I know the import of what the Deputies put forward. We believe it is catered for under section 44 and, more particularly, section 219, and will be covered under housing growth. Section 219(5) states, "A housing strategy shall take into account", and then references the need and the likely future need for housing, existing need, the need to ensure a mixture of housing, and the need to counteract undue segregation, up to section 219(5)(h) which states, "the demographics of the area of the development plan". If Deputies are looking for the type of input they wish to include in the Bill, it would be more relevant to include it in section 219(5)(h). I ask them to allow me to go away to look at it and come back with something on Report Stage regarding that. The reference to "the demographics of the area" leads precisely to the housing strategy.

I will go back to Deputy Ó Broin's point. Local authorities bring in a development plan. If they wish, however, and some are doing this and some are not, they can bring forward their own housing strategies. They can bring forward what they would like to see in particular areas. There is nothing to stop them saying they want a percentage to be rightsizing.

That is very much a reserved function of the council in terms of the development plan. The Deputy is speaking about the national scale but there are two elements to this. There is what is in this legislation and how planners will interpret it. There is also the fact of the development plan itself within each local authority and how the reserve functions of councillors operate in that regard. In terms of this amendment, the housing needs demand assessment should feed into the review of this, so we believe it is covered. However, if members are so minded, I will consider including the average household size more structurally under section 219(5)(h).