Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 13 October 2020

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government

Committee Work Programme: Discussion (Resumed)

Photo of Mary FitzpatrickMary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail)
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The second was the Living City initiative, which was introduced in 2015. In Dublin city, only 56 applications to avail of the scheme have been processed. There is a large number of vacant over-shop properties and old properties in the city. We have a housing crisis and we are spending millions on temporary homeless accommodation. I have written to the Minister separately on this issue. I tis one the committee should champion because it ticks all the boxes of social need, housing need, employment, inner city regeneration, value for money and sustainability. I am happy to have that included in No. 24.

On the new policy initiative to stimulate the production of affordable homes, I am asking what can be done from a policy perspective. We have seen in Dublin city that policy decisions drove the delivery of purpose-built student accommodation. At the same time, no affordable homes have been delivered in the past ten years. I would like the committee to carry out an examination of what policy options could be explored or implemented to drive the delivery of affordable homes. I am happy to have that included under No. 3.

Dublin City Council has a plan to regenerate the Herbert Simms flat complexes, which members might be familiar with, including Chancery House, Ballybough House and a complex on Pearse Street. Built in the 1930s, these complexes were the first examples of public housing in the State. Dublin City Council's plan for them has not progressed in the past five years. It is important that this committee examine that issue and take it up with the Department. This is valuable public housing stock in the heart of the city that is in need of regeneration. The quality of accommodation for many of the tenants is sub-par. I am happy to have that included in No. 24.

The issue of trying to identify an accelerated approval process for large local authority housing developments has been placed under No. 24. While I am happy for it to be included under housing, it goes deeper than that as it is also a matter for the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. Some developments in my constituency of Dublin Central have taken ten years to progress. That is just for the approval process. I am not talking about building but the evaluation, the cost-benefit analysis and assessment after assessment. We are spending hundreds of millions on temporary homeless accommodation, yet we have land in the heart of the capital city that is zoned and serviced for housing, has public transportation, lighting and everything else. I would like the committee to examine that. There has to be scope for greater efficiency in the approval process.