Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. That is exactly what the Minister and his colleagues in Cabinet have done today. For the third time, a Minister from a Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael Government has brought forward regulations to undermine and reduce standards in apartments. I read this document earlier today. People need to be clear that what it allows for is smaller, darker apartments with fewer amenities in sub-optimally planned residential developments. The irony is these will be the most expensive apartments because they will have no protections whatsoever as the Government guts rent pressure zones. It will also push up land values. I am sure the Minister's officials have advised him that increasing the density on a plot increases the price of the land and that will impact on viability. The Government is now also creating huge uncertainty in the development and planning communities at the very time when large-scale residential developments had led a to reduction in legal challenges and an acceleration of planning permissions. I do not understand the claim the Minister made in his press release, albeit with some caveats, that these changes will in some cases result in a reduction in the cost per unit of between €50,000 and €100,000. When I look at the report from his Department and the SCSI, I do not see any set of scenarios where reducing the square meterage or the volume of one-bedroom apartments and studios will allow him to make those sort of savings. I invite the Minister to not regurgitate his press release, which I have read, but to explain to us as a committee how these changes can result in a cost reduction of between €50,000 and €100,000 on the delivery of a unit in any scenario, given that the construction component of the all-in development cost is about half that amount. I ask the Minister to convince us this is possible. I do not believe it is possible and I think he will have difficulty explaining it.