Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair for accommodating me. Amendment No. 779 seeks to amend the Government's proposals in the legislation around the duration of planning permissions. Currently, in the Bill in front of us, the duration of a planning permission "shall be five years from the date of grant". I understand there is also scope for an additional five years. We are suggesting that this be reduced to two years, with the possibility of another two years. The rationale for this should be fairly obvious. We are all aware that there are people sitting on planning permissions and abusing the planning process for the purposes of speculation. I will give the Minister an example from my constituency. We were trying to highlight this case at the weekend and we have done so over a period of years. It relates to what I would describe as a strategically important site where there is a lot of potential for development. I will not go into the precise location of the site. We highlighted it a decade ago at least. In fact, it has been sitting undeveloped for nearly two decades at this stage. It has had multiple planning permissions. I am not quite sure who the owner is now but at one point we traced the ownership of it to a company that was based in a tax haven in the Caribbean. When we highlighted the case, and pressed in the council for it to be compulsorily purchased to develop social and affordable housing, lo and behold, the developers cleaned the place up a bit all of a sudden because it was looking so derelict. I think they put in a planning permission then but nothing has happened. It seems pretty clear to us - I am sure many others can cite similar examples - that there is no real intention here, and in fact that site has been flipped on about three occasions. They are getting planning permission. It ratchets up the value and allows them to sit on an asset that is appreciating in value but nothing is actually happening.

This is not an attempt to get at people who are genuinely putting forward legitimate planning or development proposals. However, where people are knowingly hoarding land for the purposes of speculation on the appreciation of land that could be used for housing, measures have to be taken to address that. There are different ways of going at this. I am in favour of coming at it from a number of different points of view. One of the ways to go at it is to limit the time that the planning permission will remain, unless they show serious signs that they are going to do something with it. Obviously, we are aware that things can legitimately get delayed, so that is why we are saying that an extra two years could be added under certain circumstances. A total period of four years is reasonable. If there is no sign of movement after four years, I think it is entirely legitimate to say that this planning permission is no longer valid. That would also allow local authorities to move in, where land is being held on that sort of land-hoarding and speculative basis, to acquire those properties to develop them for social and affordable housing, or things that would benefit the community and society. That is the rationale, and I hope the Minister will take it seriously.