Mr. Colm Brophy:

As the president of the Association of Irish Local Government stated, we broadly welcome this general scheme of the Bill. There are a number of aspects which we are very happy to see and welcome. I would like to comment on one aspect from the association's perspective. Part V deals with social and affordable housing, the removal of the reference to "affordability" is something that we believe needs to be looked at and examined, in particular we want to flag the situation that affordability of houses is still an issue for a large number of people who are looking to get on the housing ladder. While fully recognising the major fall in house prices and the changes during the past number of years, for many people in employment and looking to get on the first step of the housing ladder, affordability is still an issue. We believe the issue of affordability should be looked at in the context of addressing the question of housing.

We broadly welcome the reduction of the threshold of social housing from 20% to 10%. This is a welcome measure and should incentivise developments. However, while we recognise that at the heart is the need to have integrated developments, we think that extra flexibility in terms of the location of social housing should be looked at. As part of the remit of the local authority, the elected members could have a role in this if that is their view.

Local authorities might take the view that it is preferable to locate the social housing element in an area that is accessible to public transport and has more direct amenities. That type of flexibility should be strengthened in the context of preserving the desirability of integrated social housing alongside privately owned homes. Where a local authority can make a better area available for social housing, in terms of amenities and services, it should be allowed the flexibility to act accordingly in conjunction with the developer.