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

Deputy Ó Broin has set out the case and, while he was not here, I was defending his amendment for similar reasons. He has elaborated more. One other example, and I do not know if it is covered by Deputy Ó Broin's amendment, though it is in the same territory, strikes me because it is such a big, strategically important site. At the moment, it would seem that, on planning grounds, you cannot make those sorts of decisions which would meet housing needs because you are bound to accept what is currently a legitimate planning application but which any sensible person would look at and ask if that is the best use of that site.

What sticks out like a sore thumb to me is the Jurys site, which is now going to be a new US embassy. I was gobsmacked when I heard they could get planning permission. There is a building which has been sitting empty in the teeth of a massive housing crisis, the International Protection Accommodation Service people living in tents down the road and huge numbers of people homeless in the south Dublin area, while probably 1,000 beds have been sitting empty in the Jurys and Berkeley Court for ten or 15 years. I thought that at least when this was redeveloped, somebody would put housing there, because it is the obvious thing that should happen, particularly in an area where house prices and rents are through the roof and there is a desperate need for social and affordable housing. You would think that is a no-brainer. It is an important strategic site and, for God's sake, the only thing that should go there is social and affordable housing, but what is actually going to go there is a new US embassy complex when there is a perfectly good building sitting across the road. Surely the planning authority should have the power at its disposal to say that is not really the best location for that and this site really should be used for the pressing needs we have for social and affordable housing.

That is the kind of consideration I think should be put in to developing housing strategies so that we can look at sites in our area and say, given our needs, these sites should be used for these purposes and should not be used for other purposes, even though a planning application might be deemed legitimate from a planning point of view but, from the point of view of actually serving the needs of the community, makes no sense whatsoever.