Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Some very good points have been made. I thank Deputy Boyd Barrett for bringing forward these important amendments. There is a monotenure estate, which I will not name, in Coolock in my constituency. The residents there will tell you there are high achievers there. The estate is 40 or 50 years old, and many of the kids who grew up there, who are now 30 years old, went on to fulfil high achieving roles across different sectors of Irish society. The estate is quite small. The residents there put that down to the monotenure housing, which they say made it a very cohesive to grow up and a very cohesive community because people were coming from similar income backgrounds. I am not making a case for or against monotenure development but my experience as a representative is that the key issue that determines whether a community is successful is not whether it is a monotenure or mixed-tenure development, or the income in the community, but is all about how the area is planned and designed and what amenities or facilities there are. That is critical. The communities I represent that struggle the most are in areas where there have been failures in respect of those factors. That includes some communities where there are some quite high incomes, incidentally, but if community infrastructure is not put in, the community will face a considerable number of challenges. There is no question about that. There are also a number of low-income communities in my constituency but the ones that are well designed, have good facilities and good community infrastructure, perform far better than the ones where there has been poor design and planning and a lack of facilities and amenities. That has been documented by various studies.

When we were discussing the legislation relating to a directly elected mayor for Limerick, the Minister of State said he could not accept an amendment because it was not in line with the programme for Government. The programme talks about the Vienna model of housing. In Vienna, social and public housing is spread across the city and there is a good geographical and spatial spread. A section such as this, which states that it might be decided there is not a need in certain areas or whatever, would not arise in Vienna because there is that good geographical spread.

Section 219 allows for social housing, cost rental and affordable purchase. Surely within that, there is significant flexibility in any event to meet deficits. I cannot see how any area has an oversupply of any of those. It does not seem to arise. There are deficits in different communities all across the country in respect of housing that people can afford. In all communities, there is social housing need. One of the big difficulties is that there is very little social housing provision in certain areas but there is still a big need in those areas. There is enormous need in communities where there has been a lot of social housing provision over the years. That need does not suddenly stop. Multigenerational needs emerge. I would definitely like to hear from the Minister of State on this issue and I am supportive of these amendments.