Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The legislation arises from the planning and development (No. 1) Bill that was debated at pre-legislation stage at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht last December. Amid a full legislative schedule in the Department, we are seeing a hiving off of certain policy aims into vehicles such as this Bill. I acknowledge the hard work by the Department officials that goes into framing legislation, and I appreciate they are doing this towards tackling the housing crisis. However, I question the Government's methods. The Government came to power in the midst of an economic crisis, which was partly caused by a defective planning system that was led by developers and the construction sector. The planning system was dominated by builders and developers, and I have been speaking about that for the past 20 years. The system has not served the citizen very well. What I really want to say is, here we go again.

The Labour Party campaigned on ending developer-led planning. The party's 2011 manifesto said it wanted to "link planning permission for residential developments to the provision of public transport, healthcare, recreational areas, shops and facilities". I totally agree with this approach. Instead, there will be more short-termism, a lack of a strategic approach, the big, 11th hour approach to deal with a crisis that some of us have been talking about for the past couple of years. Yesterday, the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Kelly, wrote to each of the four Dublin local authorities to tell them the "viability of new development and therefore supply will be placed at risk by insertion of unreasonable or excessive requirements in relation to the standard of housing or ancillary services”. The Ministers criticised facilities that "impact adversely on the economic viability of commercial investment". We need to know what the Government means by this.

When I was involved with the Dublin Transport Initiative in the early 1990s, we discussed the potential for higher densities in urban areas. High density developments were envisaged to include family housing as well as small apartments aimed at single people. That mix never materialised in areas where public transport and other facilities already exist. I ask the Minister of State to indicate what kind of changes he envisages. The last thing we need is the bare minimum of standards. If we compromise we will have to pay for retrofitting later.

Some developers are responsible and forward thinking. I have seen a number of good quality developments. We need to learn from these people rather than reward the bad behaviour of rogue developers. I have made several suggestions in this regard which I had hoped would be included in the legislation by this stage. I also introduced a Bill which was not opposed but that did not mean it got onto the Statute Book. That is disappointing because some of us have several decades of experience in this area. As this is my second crash, I have a bit of a head-start on some of the issues arising.

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