Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

We spoke about compact growth. It was stated that building high-density apartments or compact developments is expensive. It is so much easier to build a three-bed semi on a greenfield site. It can be done in a certain amount of time, almost by the numbers. However, there is another cost saving when it comes to compact growth. Consider what the State has to do in providing roads, power, lighting, transport, water and so on to sprawl development. That is looking at compact growth as part of a bigger picture. It is not looking at a four- or three-bed semi-detached that under construction costs produced recently costs €450,000 to build. When do we start looking at these things in the round, and not just the environmental, societal and climate cost savings of compact growth versus the cost when it is sprawl development? When do we start looking at the real long-term costs?

There are also the energy efficiency increases relating to housing. Houses are expensive to build. There is no getting round it. However, the house you buy today is nothing compared with the house built in 1980, which people say was more affordable, and it was. The two are not comparable in terms of long-term running costs and the services that should be in place with good compact growth and proper planning. When do we start looking at it in overall economic terms instead of just looking at the price tag for the purchaser?