Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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I welcome the industry representatives. It is genuinely important that we meet and engage with those in the industry who are on the ground delivering. It is suggested that the aim of this proposed Bill is to accelerate housing development, but I am not convinced of that at all. What is proposed is far too premature. As Mr. Farrell said, we have the LDA and we are working on a new planning and development Bill. We have reform. They are looking at judicial reform and legal reform of judicial reviews, which are all to be welcomed. There is reform of An Bord Pleanála. There is the fallout from the planning and development Bill. There is a political reaction to the effect that throwing everything at it will resolve the matter. I am not too sure that is the way to go. We need a bit of common sense and to pull back. There are many aspects to the general scheme that have merit, but it is just a bit too early.

At the outset, I acknowledge Mr. Brian Moran. I was councillor for many years in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown so I am up to speed with the Cherrywood SDZ. I hear what is being said about the master planning and the granular detail, but I think it has served us well. There were struggles with Cherrywood, Hines and all that, but an amazing development was delivered. I was out there only yesterday. One of the great benefits for those who do not know is that three parks were delivered to the local authority. What a wonderful legacy from a development. We have the schools and the infrastructure. We have a new town and the potential to link Cherrywood on to Kilberry and out towards Wicklow. There are lessons to be learned from SDZs. The concept of public participation and engagement is a plus with SDZs, and that is why I favour some form of SDZs and the certainty they bring. One great thing for developers is that were many changes, different economic circumstances and new things. We can look from the original SDZ that was planned for Cherrywood to what is there today. I do not want to spend my time talking about Cherrywood, but I want to tell everyone who has not been there to get out and see it. Effectively, a new town has been delivered. It is not an extension of some other town. Hines has identified Cherrywood as a destination, and I acknowledge that.

I wish to raise a few matters. The industry said that LVS proposals run completely contrary to the intentions of land activation, price stability, attracting investment in residential projects, etc., and I concur. As a matter of fact, I would go so far as to say - and I want to say it at this juncture - that we need to look again at the need for institutional investors. While there is much bad publicity about them, they have a function and a role. We might need to pull in on it and change it, but we need money to develop and that is an issue. They have to talk in a holistic way. We have to talk about the delivery of houses, and there needs to be reform of Part V developments. We need reform of the Part V process at some stage. There are quite ridiculous aspects to that process. That is not to water down contribution from developers. However, the way that Part V is being delivered and the type of accommodation being provided is not necessarily best suited to meet the needs of people who need housing in specific areas. Those are important points to make.

I have touched on the backlog relating to An Bord Pleanála and the issue of judicial reviews and the need for reform in respect of these. I have touched on the fact that there is a new planning and development Bill that we have not even finalised. There is a lot in that legislation. I acknowledge the importance of the LDA and its role. It has been a slow starter but we saw what happened with the Central Mental Hospital site. In addition, there are major things going on with Shanganagh Castle. It is exiting stuff. The LDA has honed its skills. It faces a mammoth task. The secret to the LDA will be collaboration with the private sector. It does not all need to be State intervention. I have said time and again that we should not get hung up on who is building the houses. We need houses, and we need to release the lands necessary to facilitate their construction.

This is the pre-legislative scrutiny process. Ultimately, what is being said at these hearings will be distilled down into a pre-legislative scrutiny report that will contain recommendations. The report will say something like "The committee has 100 recommendations". Therefore, this is the witnesses’ time to push for clarity and conciseness in their asks. They should use that time wisely.

I will finish by saying that many of us woke up earlier to a headline on "Morning Ireland" to the effect that new legislation could add €35,000 – okay, drop it back to €8,000 - on houses. That is alarming, and people do not want to hear it. We need to come together, park the ideology and deliver on the houses wherever an opportunity comes.

I will hand over to the witnesses for the final minute or two. Will they touch on the key asks in crisp sentences? When you do business on the table, as they say, what is the ask? This committee needs to hear loud and clear what the asks are. I am not saying that the witnesses will be able to outline them in a minute. If they could engage with us and supply us a number of succinct asks, it would be helpful.

I thank the witnesses. They have much to offer and they employ many people. They are part of the engine of our successful economy. We need to harness all of that to deliver a range of housing to meet the needs of our people.