Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Planning is one of my areas of responsibility. The Deputy referred to the word "spinning". It has been clarified to the Deputy by the Secretary General of the Department that it was an inappropriate and ill-advised comment between officials in the Department of Finance and the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government.

The Deputy's question is very relevant and topical. As has been said already this morning, it is critical to address the housing supply issues in Dublin in particular and also throughout the country. The construction sector is recovering from the worst blow it has ever experienced. Construction is only contributing approximately 6% of GNP when it should be contributing 12%. We are working towards a normalised construction sector to increase the supply of housing through the Construction 2020 and social housing strategies. A sum of €4 billion is committed to the social housing strategy up to 2020. The Government is also working on initiatives to increase the supply of houses in the private sector. I intend to bring a planning Bill before the House shortly that will help to stimulate and incentivise further housing contributions from the private sector.

The Deputy asks about the measures taken and the figures published by the Department. As part of the Construction 2020 strategy the Department established the Dublin housing supply and co-ordination task force, which includes the CEOs of the four local authorities, with the support of the Housing Agency. One of the first actions of the task force was to analyse the stock of planning permissions and zoned land for housing developments in Dublin. Its first report was published in June 2014. Across the four Dublin local authorities, planning permissions are in place for the immediate development of approximately 21,000 housing units. The permissions are unconstrained. An additional 25,500 new homes are considered permissible in the immediate to short term on lands zoned and available for development but which do not currently have the benefit of planning permission. These published figures were presented by the Dublin task force and are supported by the Housing Agency.

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