John Brassil (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I greatly welcome this debate and the opportunity to contribute to it. There are a few key points that I would like to raise, one of which was already mentioned by my colleague, Deputy Casey.

In looking at rural settlement guidelines, we must have a radical rethink in terms of how we approach building houses in rural Ireland. The only relevant criteria in this regard is that a new house would be the primary place of residence of the person building it. Anybody who wants to live in rural Ireland, as long as proper planning guidelines regarding such matters as percolation and road traffic safety can be adhered to, should be given the opportunity to do so on the basis that the house he or she is building will be his or her primary place of residence. Once that is the case, he or she will contribute to the social and economic fabric of the community. That is so important in places such as rural Kerry, which I represent, because many of the towns and villages in north and south Kerry - this is borne out by the recent census - are suffering from depopulation, in some cases at a rate of up to 4%. We need to revitalise those communities. In order to do so, a radical reconsideration of the rural settlement policies should be undertaken.

I am also interested in the breakdown of how the population will expand in the future and the 50-50 divide between the east coast and the remainder of the country. The zoning of land in towns and villages is a matter of great interest to me. In my experience, planners will zone land concentrically from the centre out, which is correct and represents good planning. However, a great deal of land is zoned in circumstances where landowners have no desire for it to be zoned because they do not want to develop it. There are vast tracts of zoned land across the country and those who own it have no desire to do anything with it. This is a matter with which we need to deal. We either adopt policies whereby we incentivise landowners to ensure that their zoned land is developed or we make provision for broadening out the zoning areas, thereby ensuring that enough houses are built in order to cater for the population.

Another matter about which I am greatly concerned and which I have raised on a number of occasions, particularly on Questions to the Taoiseach a couple of days ago and with the Department and my local authority, is that of turnkey projects in respect of which developers are incentivised. There were advertisements published in various newspapers to ask developers to submit proposals to build houses and then hand them over, when fully completed, to local authorities. For this, a 10% down-payment is offered to the developer and the remaining money will be paid on completion. I have strong evidence that in certain counties, but, in particular, Cork, people can get up to 30% funding for turnkey projects. As the Minister of State, Deputy Phelan, will be aware, a 10% offering is not easily bankable and, therefore, makes the project more difficult to deliver, whereas a 30% offering is far more bankable and will ensure that a project is delivered very quickly. I have no issue with that. In the case of Cork, in order for the 30% upfront payment to be made, the site must be transferred to the local authority as a guarantee in the event that something might go wrong and it would be left out of pocket. Developers all over the country are quite willing to do this. I really would like an answer in respect of this matter because I know a number of people who have been affected by what is happening. I want fair play for everybody. I want the procurement guidelines for every county to be the same and I do not want one county to have a greater advantage over the others. I want local authorities in all counties to have the ability to deliver these turnkey projects and to be given the same upfront payments in order to make them bankable and deliverable. That is a reasonable request. I am fully supportive of what is being done in Cork because the local authority there is trying to get on with dealing with what is a national crisis. If it is allowed to operate under certain procurement rules, then every other authority should be in a position to do the same. I really would like an answer in respect of this matter. I have been running around the place for the past four or five weeks trying to get somebody to provide a definitive answer but one has not been forthcoming.

I ask that the Minister of State take my points, particularly the final one, into consideration. I will now hand over to my colleague, Deputy Michael Collins, who kindly offered to share time.

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