Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

The Minister of State says it will all happen in time. How much more time does he need to provide for the housing needs of people who cannot afford to buy their own home or those who need social housing? He has had nine years to do it, including six since the Planning and Development Act was passed, but has only produced 2,000 under Part V. He says this is because old planning permissions were stockpiled. The permissions were stockpiled because when they were due to expire at the end of 2000 and he changed the law in such a way that Part V could not apply to them. He handed back approximately 80,000 sites to which Part V would have applied and that is the reason the policy is not working. It is not working because he scuttled it.

The Minister of State has ended up with just over 2,000 units when he should have somewhere between my modest estimate of 30,000 units and the 50,000 to 60,000 estimate of the Minister, Deputy Noel Dempsey, who is given to some exaggeration.

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