Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Ó Broin and Sinn Féin for bringing forward this Bill. It is important. We have had a good debate. It is useful and the Government fully recognises the sentiment and intent of the Bill, albeit that there are unintended consequences which is why the Government will not be supporting it.

Before I sum up, I will refer to a number of points that have been raised. We need a more robust means of resolving the valid issues that have been raised. A broader debate at the Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage would help that. The issues of liveable cities, density and sustainable development have been raised and they certainly are at the core of what we are trying to achieve with the Town Centre First principle as well. I am fortunate, while living here, to be living in the Liberties, which I love and is a home from home for me. This is a community where people say "Hello" and is a fantastic community in which to be living in Dublin. That is the kind of community approach which we need to try to replicate.

The point was well made by Deputy Naughten on private student accommodation providers and by Deputy Connolly on the commitment to social housing. There is a strong commitment to social housing and approved housing bodies in the programme for Government. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, is very much committed to that.

I will recap finally on the provisions of the Bill, which specifically proposes to amend section 28 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 and to repeal the build-to-rent and shared accommodation sections of the apartments guidelines for planning authorities issued by the Minister under section 28 of the Planning and Development Act in 2018. The point here is that quite fundamental changes are proposed in this small Bill of only three sections that would have a significant impact on the consistent and effective operation of our planning system.

Section 28 as enacted empowers the Minister responsible for housing, local government and heritage to issue guidelines to planning authorities regarding any of their planning functions to which planning authorities must have regard. The subsection the Bill proposes to delete, section 28(1C), enables guidelines issued by the Minister under section 28 to also include specific planning policy requirements, SPPRs, with which planning authorities and An Bord Pleanála must comply. We have heard the rationale and good reasons why this subsection was introduced in the first place. These are as relevant and valid today as when they were when first enacted under the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2015, which amended section 28 of the Planning and Development Act 2000. Under Section 28(1C), as part of the planning guidelines issued under section 28, a Minister may identify SPPRs, with which planning authorities or An Bord Pleanála in the exercise of their functions, must comply. The SPPR amendment was inserted concurrent to a 2015 review and update of apartment planning guidelines to replace 2007 apartment guidelines. The review process had been prompted by the adoption of development plans in a number of local authority areas that sought to either set higher minimum standards than those at national level, as set out in the 2007 guidelines document, or set additional, new standards in matters not addressed by the 2007 guidelines.

As outlined by the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke earlier, these actions, although well-meaning, unilaterally departed from the national guidance which had been developed with expert input and were assessed to have the effect of unnecessarily and unjustifiably increasing the cost of new apartment development, either rendering such developments unviable or adding to costs ultimately borne by future occupants, whether purchasers or renters. No one could reasonably advocate returning to such a situation as in 2015, where each of the four Dublin local authorities had different standards for apartment development, three of which departed from national guidance and where standards further varied across the country. The 2015 apartment guidelines and the subsequent updated 2018 apartment guidelines used the SPPR mechanism under section 28(1C) of the Planning and Development Act to ensure clarity and consistency in providing national minimum standards in apartment developments.

As to whether it has been effective, the evidence would suggest it has. In 2019, the Society of Chartered Surveyors in Ireland independently assessed the impact of the 2018 apartment guidelines as contributing to a 10% to 20% reduction in build costs in Dublin, or €28,000 to €58,000 where applied in actual schemes. While the viability of urban apartment development continues to be challenged, section 28(1C) has contributed to a significant increase in apartment construction in recent years. The total number of apartments completed nationally in 2015 was 673 but by 2019, this had increased more than fourfold to 3,550. While we must acknowledge that several factors contributed to this, ensuring a consistent set of national planning standards played a significant role.

The ability to identify specific planning policy requirements under section 28(1C) enables an important distinction to be made between the general content of ministerial guidance, where there is scope for variation in application at local authority level, as opposed to the mandatory nature of specific aspects of guidance, where it may be necessary to identify requirements that must be applied consistently. This Bill would remove a provision introduced to empower the Minister to ensure a nationally consistent approach to planning. No one would want to revert to the position that existed in 2015, having four different apartment standards in each of the four Dublin local authorities. To be fair, I do not believe the proposers of the Bill would want that either but it is nonetheless one of those unintended consequences that can and would arise if the Government did not oppose this Bill.

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