Robert Dowds (Dublin Mid West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I never realised Deputy Nolan was so influenced by his spell in Germany until I heard him speak today and earlier in the week. He wants to put order on everything. In the case of the housing situation, he is absolutely correct.

In welcoming this Bill I see it as an essential part of a major job that must be done. There are some important steps in that job. In respect of Part V provisions for social and affordable housing, it is absolutely essential that there is an obligation on developers to provide the 10% social housing commitment. In a sense I would prefer if it was even more, but if we could get that into operation, it would be a big step forward. It is important to set out why that is a good development. It is a good development because it will put people in social housing in a better position to access work in many cases and to be nearer their place of work. Let us consider planning in this city in the past. Out along by Morehampton Road there are posh houses on both sides of the road. Behind those houses are smaller artisan dwellings. This is because in the past the people who lived in those houses worked for the wealthy. As a Labour Party Deputy I favour as much as possible a move towards equality in society. Enabling people in social housing to live mixed with people who live in private housing is a positive development for all kinds of reasons.

Reference has been made to the application of reduced development contribution charges. I would appreciate it if the Minister could go through the reasons for this again in his reply. As I understand it, the purpose is to try to get some development going and reduce the cost of housing. This is something we need to keep an eye on.

The third issue is the vacant site levy. After I got elected to the House I was involved with five other Labour Party Deputies in work on aspects of the housing question. One of the things we looked at in considerable detail was the idea of a vacant site levy. I am pleased to see the levy as part of the legislation. There are far too many places in this city, Galway, Cork and the towns of Ireland where there are vacant or empty sites and they are causing blight on the centre of the towns or cities. I hope the vacant site levy of 3% will go towards addressing this issue and providing housing in areas which for the most part already have decent services. This would be beneficial in a number of ways, in particular in terms of filling in ugly empty sites and placing people adjacent to services, whether buses, shops, schools, churches and so on. I see considerable positivity in that. It is long past time that we had the sort of pressure to get those sites occupied, especially given the appalling housing crisis we are dealing with.

It is vital we try to address the housing issue on as many fronts as possible. Part of the question is social and part of it is private. We probably need to look at ways of developing our rental market to get away from the ad hocsituation which many people have been subjected to and from which many people suffer at the moment. I am pleased to support the Bill.

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