Mr. Padraig McNally:

Senator Keane and Deputy Stanley made some particularly apt points. The concept of Part V is not a bad idea, in an ideal world. I fully agree with Deputy Stanley and I know of instances in which these houses were pushed into corners. The way they made them affordable for the councils to buy them was not necessarily lack of quality but a much plainer design. This led to a scenario in which it was obvious which houses in an estate were the Part V houses because of where they were and how they looked. They were a much cheaper option and the developers did not lose. Although we would love to see a rate of 20% affordable housing, in reality the developers add what they lose on those houses to the cost of the others. I have a difficulty with the term "affordable housing". We should aspire to a situation in which all family size houses should be affordable. Instead of trying to identify a house that should be cheaper than the one next to it, the houses should be the same. The question is how to deliver them. We need to seek to make all three-bedroom houses affordable, although it would be very complex. This is what happened in the past. A few got affordable houses through the affordable housing scheme while others paid the balance and are still suffering.

Where a farm is on the edge of a town, in general it is because the town moved out to the farm. The farmer did not move the land into the town. I would be very hesitant to agree to anything that would involve a levy being put on such land if it is being actively farmed. We must be very careful as there would probably be legal issues. I accept that the legislation on vacant sites is weak and probably has not been enforced. Every town or village, no matter how vibrant, going in the opposite direction has suffered and one can see the reality.

The lack of joined-up thinking has left a situation in which voluntary housing agencies are coming in and buying houses and the first the local authority hears of it is when the agency contacts it asking for tenants from the waiting lists. This has happened in at least three counties. There was no knowledge of the fact that the voluntary housing agencies were buying houses. It would be different if they were building because everybody would know who they were.

In another capacity I am a member of a body that is trying to identify hurdles to fast-track development and there are some very obvious ones. While it may not be in the committee's remit, I have a particular issue with the lack of zoning in some areas, where there is too little land in the ownership of too few people, many of whom do not want to sell, for example because they are elderly and do not want millions or hundreds of thousands of euro. I have an issue with that because of the reduction forced on councils a few years ago. Almost every major planning application is referred to An Bord Pleanála and the process takes 12 to 18 months. Major reform is needed if we are to achieve fast tracking. This is especially true of commercial development where it is the easiest thing in the world to delay a project for a year or two by referring it to An Bord Pleanála. It is the same for many housing developments. This may not be in this committee's remit.