Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Bill.

I compliment the Minister, his staff and the Seanad on the work they have done in the past number of weeks on analysing and scrutinising the Bill and making some very relevant amendments to it.

The Minister said, quite correctly, that the housing crisis is the greatest challenge facing the Government and the country. We have been debating that point and we have sought to assist by putting forward proposals and suggested initiatives in the months since the Government was formed with a view to addressing the crisis in a real and meaningful way. We all played our part, at the instruction of the House, in establishing a special committee on housing which made a raft of suggestions and proposals in its report. That fed into the document the Minister produced within 100 days, Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, as he had committed to do. I commend him on that. The consultation process was extensive and appropriate and involved all the stakeholders, including ourselves. Since then, we have produced various submissions on the budget relating to measures that would assist. We have also submitted initiatives to address the rent strategy, which we discussed during the debate on the Sinn Féin Private Members' Bill. During that debate, the Minister gave a commitment that on Committee Stage of this Bill he will make some further amendments and adjustments to the Residential Tenancies Act which will allow him to give effect to aspects of his rental strategy. We welcome that.

I have no doubt that the medium to long-term initiatives contained in the Rebuilding Ireland - Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness document have the potential to address the crisis in a more real and meaningful manner than the plan in place under the previous Government which, despite its best intentions, failed to address the crisis and only allowed it to worsen. The crisis is also having a profound effect in many other areas, such as in the context of the public service pay debate. Undoubtedly, far too much of people's disposable income is being spent on rent and mortgages in their efforts to provide a home either in the cities or elsewhere throughout the country. It was quite obvious that interventions were required in existing systems and planning procedures to address both demand and supply. The Minister has gone part of the way in recent months with his demand initiatives, but I do not believe he has gone far enough with supply initiatives. I will continue to impress upon him the great need to do that.

He took one step in that direction recently when he agreed to have the Housing Finance Agency prepare the relevant statistics and information to provide a definitive independent assessment of building costs. I believe that will show what we have been saying for some time, that there is a need to tackle development levies and certification costs, without compromising standards or quality. When one compares our system of certification with that of the UK and the North one finds it costs up to five time less in the North for the same certification. We have outlined to the Minister the possibility of the local authority becoming the certification master in such instances. There is also the VAT issue and the costs associated with the construction industry. Another area is competitive finance and the availability of the credit unions to play a part in making competitive finance more real and effective, which would allow them to play a role in assisting us out of the unfortunate mess we are in at present. That could be allied to the measures announced last week by the Central Bank and the measures announced in the budget for first-time buyers. Indeed, those measures could be extended in certain areas to help the second-hand market, which is stagnant in many parts of the country outside Dublin and particularly in rural provincial areas.

The main aspect of the Bill relates to the fast-tracking of developments of over 100 units directly to An Bord Pleanála. I agree with that and I acknowledge that it must be done. However, I also acknowledge the fears and concerns that were expressed in the Seanad and by various councillors throughout the country. I re-affirm to them and to others who believe that somehow the local democratic process is being compromised that this could not be further from the truth. The primacy of the local development plan remains in place. It is sacrosanct in the hierarchy of plans and it is the bible in respect of planning applications. My only worry and fear is that many of the other plans, be they regional plans or spatial strategies, might not be as up to date, which can have an impact when a planner or the board is to make a final decision. They might not be consistent with the current social and economic situation in the areas where the applications are being made. I hope people will be cognisant of that.

I hope that relevant personnel and expertise will be available to An Bord Pleanála. There is a 25% drop in staffing rates now compared to 2008. There is also increased potential for legal challenges to decisions. Again, is there capacity to deal with that should it be the case? I seek reassurance that there will be no deficiencies in the board's capacity to meet the demand that may be placed on it by the provisions of this Bill. The rationale for the new planning procedure is that in the vast majority of large applications that were appealed to the board previously the board most often upheld the local authority's decision. There is the capacity, therefore, to reduce the time by up to 52 weeks, as has been indicated previously. Local authorities will continue to be the prime decision makers on planning permissions for developments below 100 units. There is some controversy about this. However, the planning system should not be made the scapegoat for failures in the housing market. The barriers to construction which I have mentioned also must be acknowledged.

Given the deficits in housing supply across the country and the persistence of historically low levels of construction activity, especially of multi-unit developments, we must take these measures to jolt the market. I understand and support that. I hope my worries about staffing levels will be addressed to deal with the upsurge in activity and to be able to give decisions in the timeframe contained in the Bill. It is a welcome and new departure for the procedures. Up to now, we have had extensions of time for many applications of this nature and they were the expectation of those who made those applications in recent times.

Another amendment we welcome is the extension of time for permissions. Deputy O'Rourke raised that matter in the House some months ago. With regard to the reform of the Part 8 approvals, we welcome that going from eight to six weeks. The main delay with social housing delivery is not necessarily within the planning or Part 8 procedures. It is the approval of the Department for local authorities' submissions. One case that was brought to my attention this morning relates to Cork. The local authority sought approval for 120 units last March but it is still not approved by the Department, despite the opinion of Cork County Council that it could get started by early 2017.

There is anecdotal evidence of that throughout the country that has been made known to us. The accuracy of that information may be questionable but there still seems to be too long a delay despite the fact the Department has moved from an eight-step to a four-step procedure but we have not seen the impact of that locally. Considering the effort to deliver what is contained in Rebuilding Ireland, the Government's fanfare around it, and the focus of the special task force in the Department, as mentioned by the Minister, which is working with local authorities in a much closer and meaningful manner, I hope we will see deliveries that we can stand over in the future.

I do not want to elaborate on the Bill much longer. We will go through it in greater deal when we come to deal with amendments on Committee Stage. I look forward to a wholesome contribution by all Members to ensure the Bill has the desired effect in assisting in alleviating the crisis in the mid to long term and, with respect to the tenancies Act, that efforts will be made in the short term to improve the position of those who currently find themselves in a terrible situation.

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