Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and I am glad to have a few brief moments to make a few points. I welcome the Bill to give an additional two years, but I believe it should have been three years. Deputy Calleary made good points on this subject earlier and I support them. I also support the year for the development plans. I have grave concerns, however, about us meeting our housing targets and I have bigger concerns regarding the misalignment of policy across all Departments. It does not facilitate us in meeting the challenges of what is a housing emergency.

One such example of this is the dezoning which followed the crash. We all felt it was appropriate at the time and that we had too much zoned land. These are called strategic land reserves in most areas. Let us use my county of Sligo as an example. I contacted five developers today regarding the strategic land reserve there in respect of those areas contiguous to developed areas and serviced lands. They could provide 1,000 houses over the next two years. Theoretically, Sligo County Council can materially contravene the plan to ensure that those builders could get planning permission and we would then have 1,000 houses. In reality, the situation is much different because of the prescribed process in the planning Acts. It involves public consultation, the elected members and so on. We would go around the administrative merry-go-round forever.

We need to amend the planning Acts to give local authorities the discretion to grant planning permission in circumstances where there are 1,000 houses effectively ready to go. We must facilitate the building of those houses where we know there is a housing need.

Another issue that must be addressed in terms of the alignment of policy is the rising cost of materials at the same time as we have an inexcusable backlog in the felling of trees. The price of timber has increased by up to 60%. Development finance is another issue of concern. The banks are talking the talk but are not walking the walk. They will not lend to developers in places like Sligo or Tipperary. They only want to lend in the five major cities and nowhere else. We need to find ways to address these issues too.

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