John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I commend Deputy Darragh O'Brien for bringing forward the Bill. I would like to focus on the strategic housing development, SHD, aspect of the Bill as the issue is threatening to wreak havoc in my constituency of Dublin South-West. One of the interesting things I read in the last three or four weeks was written by the economist, Colm McCarthy, who talked about the census of Dublin city in 1966. He pointed out that, essentially, the population of Dublin city has not increased since 1966, so it is the suburbs that have taken all the population rise, which is at least 1.5 million. All of these SHD applications, which are the Minister of State's baby, are starting to hit the ground in my constituency, in Knocklyon, Tallaght and Citywest in particular.

To be fair, the SHDs were designed to provide homes. What we know now, through academic research and journalistic inquiry and from experience on the ground, is that what they have succeeded in doing is providing multiple planning applications for student accommodation, co-living accommodation and, in my constituency, a rampant amount of build-to-let units, not homes for people.

There could be no greater monument to Fine Gael's housing policy, no greater symbol of it, than if planning applications submitted to An Bord Pleanála via the SHD process were approved such that upwards of 500 build-to-let units were placed on the Knocklyon lands of the ancestral home of the former President of the Free State and Taoiseach, Mr. Cosgrave. That would be a great monument to the SHD process.

My colleagues and I who are out and about every week meet more and more families whose adult children are coming home because they cannot afford to rent. Surely the Minister of State must know this. What this policy does is enable the construction of huge amounts of high-density, high-rise, build-to-rent housing in areas where rents continue to be exorbitant and out of the reach of those who want to leave home, to gain that last piece of independence in their lives and to strike out as individuals in their own right. The Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, shouted across the floor at me one morning that I wanted to block houses. That is the last thing I want to do. I want to facilitate, as I am sure everyone in this House does, the construction of quality, affordable and, if they must be subsidised, subsidised homes for people. This is an earnest effort to address a part of the issue. The message I wish to bring to the Minister of State this evening is that the Government's SHD process will end in tears. It is not delivering affordability, it benefits and is biased towards the speculative end of the market, and it does not provide quality permanent homes for people in my constituency, who deserve such homes.

Like all speakers on this side of the House, I have very limited speaking time, so I will pass the floor to my colleague.

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