Victor Boyhan (Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I have three very short follow-up questions. Dr. Duffy spoke about affordable housing supply and the impact on it. He mentioned something about development levies but did not go into any great detail. There are building costs and then there are profits for builders and developers. We clearly have to find the line between those. I hope Dr. Duffy is not suggesting any reduction in development levies. Development levies are ring-fenced with specific purposes in mind. That does not necessarily relate to the development itself. The witnesses know how the development levy scheme works and is apportioned. I know people have difficulty with it, but the other side of that is that local authorities rely on development levies. We could have a whole session about development levies and the people who have not paid them. If one looks at the Dublin local authorities one sees that vast debts of outstanding development levies are owed to them. There are a variety of reasons for that. The levies are there for a purpose, namely the common good. The overall development of sustainable communities is really important. It is a tricky issue and one that concerns me. Perhaps Dr. Duffy might touch on and outline what he meant. Is he talking about a temporary suspension or various reliefs for specific projects? I would be interested to hear what he says about that.

Mr. Fitzgerald talks about not enough land being zoned. I was a councillor for many years in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown and we were constantly told that too much land was zoned. They were preventing land from being zoned. I am talking about land between the N11 and the M50, not beyond the M50 or below that area. These were what we would today call major infrastructure or transport corridors, places that made a lot of sense. I cannot understand it when people talk about a lack of zoned land. Most local authorities, certainly those in Dublin, Galway and Cork, have vast tracts of land. There are vast tracts of land in State ownership. We have touched on the State's portfolio before. There is a real need for a very in-depth analysis of the State's real estate portfolio. Every day I am involved in this I realise that the State does not know its own assets. Local authorities seem to have a difficulty in identifying them, as do the State and the Department. That is a major concern. The witnesses might touch on this. I do not know where Mr. Fitzgerald gets the idea that not enough land is being zoned. Professional planners are told there is enough. The Department tells some local authorities they have more than enough land. Whenever a councillor proposes rezoning there is a suggestion they are up to something shady. That is the way it has gone. We now have a situation where local authority members are finding it very difficult to propose zoning. All sorts of motives are attributed or suggestions made about their commitment to forward planning. Mr. Fitzgerald might talk about that briefly.

Finally, I am very interested in what Mr. Fitzgerald has to say about a single body for the delivery of the social housing targets. I would have thought that was the Department itself. We do not need to reinvent the wheel. Why is the Department insisting on that? Ultimately, the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government is the key Department that drives this. It is the Department that comes before this committee and goes on national media to talk about rebuilding Ireland and setting targets.

The problem is that no one is quantifying. We have no independent validation of the figures and statistics on construction and the roll-out of social and affordable housing, or any housing construction. Do the witnesses have anything in mind? Have they seen a model anywhere else? Could they tease out the situation a little bit more? It makes sense that we have accountability. Why are we not delivering? Why are we hearing day in and day out about targets but no one is delivering them? What model or what body is Mr. Phillips thinking about? I invite him to share that with us.