Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I have been talking to builders who are on sites now constructing social housing and it is being connected to gas supply and fossil fuels. I do not see how that makes sense. Ten or 15 years hence, we could be retrofitting social houses that are being built now to install heat pumps. At this stage we should not be building any social housing that is connected to those types of fossil fuel home heating.

My final question relates to the national planning framework which is in the climate action statement. There is a clear need for much more compact growth and using brownfield sites. The target in the national planning framework is for 50% of overall growth in housing by 2040 to be in our five cities. A key lever in dealing with brownfield sites and vacant sites is the vacant sites levy, so my question is about that. Just over half of local authorities have a vacant sites register with valuations. It is 17 out of 31 of the local authorities. That is most unsatisfactory. There is also the fact that only four local authorities have collected vacant sites levies totalling slightly less than €1 million. Is the Minister of State satisfied with the rate of collection of vacant sites levies? Does he agree that we must have much stronger legislation on vacant sites and that we could also provide supports at national level with teeth or legal back-up to support local authorities in their collection? Would the Minister of State like the legislation in that area to be revised and strengthened?

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