Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Before it broke and became a big story in recent weeks, we had been campaigning on the basis that the site was perfect for public and affordable housing and that providing same would revitalise Dún Laoghaire, which desperately needs families and so on living in its centre. Instead, the site is going to a property developer who is just looking to maximise the profit that can be squeezed out of it and these boxes with fold-out beds for which the developer will charge €1,300.

I will provide some local knowledge to what has become a national debate on the site. People across Dún Laoghaire and from all sectors of society are raging about the proposal. It is an absolute abuse of the strategic housing development process. That one can bypass the normal planning process to do this is shocking. This is not meeting the area's housing needs. No one asked for something like this. People are asking for decent quality housing for families and individuals who cannot get anything because it is unaffordable in Dún Laoghaire, where the average property price is in excess of €600,000, rents are well over €2,000 per month on average and virtually no public housing is being provided. It is shocking. We submitted an objection to this development. As I did last week, I ask the Minister to examine whether allowing something like this is an abuse of the strategic housing development process.

The Minister did not comment on the question of whether it was appropriate in the current climate for a local authority, which is under his remit, to be exchanging land that could provide hundreds of desperately needed housing units in Cherrywood for office blocks. In the teeth of this crisis, is it appropriate that public land that could be used for housing is being given to private property developers? I believe it is shockingly inappropriate. Will the Minister please comment?

The Minister did not comment on my point about the Part V example that I gave. The Minister is not aware of that particular example, but if my assertion is correct and Part V social housing is built to a lower standard and quality than private development in the same housing development, does he view that as acceptable? It is not acceptable and represents housing apartheid. There are two tiers of housing standards. This increases the stigma and so on associated with social housing. I ask the Minister to please comment.