Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It seems to be funky Friday in here. I was hoping Deputy Catherine Murphy would stay on as she was part of Kildare County Council when I was on it and I have been fighting against certain changes in this type of legislation since they came into being. I will refer to Part 8 of the Bill, which deals with planning development and specifically the Planning Development Act 2000. Within the Bill, there are proposed changes to amalgamate city, town and county bodies and there will be a review of development plans in that process. Within each development plan being reviewed there is a section referring to Part V of the planning Act, and this takes in the social and affordable housing scheme. If the Ceann Comhairle will indulge me, I will speak specifically to this.

I have been totally opposed to this process since it was introduced by a former Minister, former Deputy Noel Dempsey, as a way of alleviating housing list difficulties in all counties throughout the country. It has failed miserably, and in Kildare currently we have in excess of 5,000 people on lists. If Deputy Murphy had remained she would have known that I argued passionately at the time not to introduce it into our development plan but we were forced to do so as a result of legislation under Part V of the Planning and Development Act 2000. I argued at the time that it did not develop communities but just built houses. It did not develop playgrounds, amenities or sites for schools. Before this, local authorities were doing "deals" - I hate that word - with developers and if there was a possibility of getting a piece of land for a school or playground, there could be a negotiation. In my constituency the McHugh case in the courts struck down that concept, although I thought it was an excellent idea. If a local plan was put in place, it meant local amenities could be sorted out.

This process was introduced by the former Minister, Noel Dempsey, who believed it would solve all the housing problems, but it has failed utterly in doing so. We need to give local authorities some opportunity to start building houses and that will also help generate jobs locally. Many builders are unemployed on a long-term basis and these could be taken from the dole queues. It would also help clean up the black market, where much construction is ongoing.

I know the Minister is part and parcel of a reforming Government and he loves to change things. He recognises that some of the actions of our predecessors were absolutely disgraceful and despicable. Since its introduction in 2000, I have fought against this process with all my body to ensure it could be reformed or removed from the Statute Book. I ask the Minister to consider this and he will have my complete support if he amends the 2000 Act in order to repeal this section. The Minister is reforming and likes good ideas and if we remove this process and allow local authorities to get back to building houses, it will be a positive move not alone for local authorities but for the economy in general.

See this speech in context