Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I was at the committee meeting some days ago when this directive was debated. What new powers were being afforded to the local authorities that they did not have already? I cannot see where there are new powers. I cannot see what this directive achieves that could not have been achieved through a telephone call. Essentially, this is about blaming the local authorities for not building the houses that they were not given the money to build a year ago. It is a Carr Communications response and not a real one.

One of the main concerns is that the modular units are to have a life span of 60 years. They are not temporary and are to cost in the region of €190,000 per unit. The big problem is that the planning shortcuts could end up causing very major problems by ghettoising people. The units are not being considered in the context of the kind of rigorous planning that would normally apply. I understand completely there is a crisis and that there must be a response to it.

There are large amounts of vacant accommodation. For example, in Dublin city there is a vacancy rate of approximately 8%. Essentially, every time that is reduced by 1%, around 5,000 units are made available. It is one particular area where there are physical structures currently in place that could be part of the response.

The Minister of State needs to describe exactly how temporary these modular houses will be. How long is the maximum period for which a family could be living in one of these houses? They should not be called "temporary" unless there is a means of ensuring they are so. These houses could have doubled as student accommodation in the future; that would have been one way of dealing with the matter.

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