Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

To be clear on the Aarhus Convention, I have listened to the points being made for a long number of years. We are compliant with it. Our job is to respond to the directives and implement them. That is what we do. As a planning authority, the Department reckons we do not need this amendment. We are implementing the directives; that is our job. The Deputy will keep arguing that we are not implementing them. This will continue to arise. I have listened to the argument for years. We are confident we are in line with the directives connected to the Aarhus Convention. That is our job as a planning Department. We will continue to do that.

I acknowledge Deputy Ó Broin wants to press his amendment. That is grand; the Deputy should go ahead and we will continue with the debate afterwards. We are confident, however, that we are compliant.

With regard to the funding, the issue is revamping a system, including for social housing provision. It was locked down and closed down before the recession kicked in. Decisions were made at that time to reduce the capacity of local authorities to build social housing. We are putting that capacity back into the system. We are reinstating the capacity, including by increasing the number of personnel and making a very clear direction to local authorities that they should get back in the business of leading the charge for the provision of social housing. What we are saying about our commitment is that we will see the 47,000 houses. The lands we put up last week could accommodate at least 50,000 houses and probably many more. If one had a chance, one would squeeze a few more onto some of the sites. Therefore, there is great potential. We are saying the capacity in the system is not such as to realise it straight away. For this reason, I am asking that we make the sites available, for two reasons. First, we believe it is right to have mixed tenure. The Deputy would agree with that. We do not believe there should be social housing alone on the sites. Rather, there should be mixed tenure across the board. The Department believes in that very strongly and the Minster, Deputy Coveney, believes in it very strongly with a view to developing communities that are sustainable and function quite well. That is what we are trying to do. This is a common approach around the world and one we should do better here. We have not done it for years.

With regard to funding, the funding would not be in place tomorrow to build 50,000 houses on the lands. We will set out our funding over the next three or four years. We are tying to use the State-owned lands in a clever way not to make millions for any developer, but in a proper, managed way that gives value to the taxpayer and delivers a more affordable house to people of all abilities to pay. That is what we will use the lands for, and it makes sense. It is not that there is a shortage of funding tomorrow. To use all the land and get all the houses built, we believe it is best to involve all the people who want to come in with us in joint ventures or through a leasing or licensing arrangement.

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