Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the Deputies for their contributions. The Government firmly believes that home ownership and more affordable rental is essential for our society. We have put delivery, affordability and the chance to own your own home at the heart of our housing policy. In not opposing this motion, the Government points towards our shared goal to deliver affordable housing and makes clear, as is laid out in the programme for Government, that its actions will be guided by the core principle that everybody should have access to good quality housing to purchase or rent.

The programme for Government lays out the many actions the Government is taking to improve affordability for the rental and purchase of homes. The measures in the Affordable Housing Bill 2021 will, in the near term, improve market access for first-time buyers, stimulate an increase in the number of new homes being developed and provide State-supported rental housing at more affordable prices. The Bill provides the statutory underpinning for affordable housing going forward. This includes both affordable homes for purchase and cost rental and the increase in Part V requirements to 20% to include an affordability yield. In addition to the measures in the Affordable Housing Bill 2020, using €1.25 billion in funding from the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund and further funds this can leverage, the Land Development Agency is tasked to work with Departments, local authorities, State agencies and other stakeholders to assemble strategic sites in urban areas and ensure the sustainable development of social and affordable homes to rent and purchase.

The development of the lands at Poolbeg SDZ has the potential to provide significant additional housing in a strategically important part of our capital city. It is clear it will not be possible to develop the area without significant infrastructural support that clearly adds capacity and value to the site and the homes within it. As highlighted by the Minister, a range of Exchequer-funded facilitating supports have already been ring-fenced or will be available to support the development of the Poolbeg SDZ. This includes funding under LIHAF, the URDF, the serviced sites fund and social housing. It includes the provision of high-capacity, effective public transport for the area in the form of Government-funded construction of Dodder Bridge. An Bord Pleanála has already considered the suitability of land in the proposed strategic development zone area for large-scale development and has made it clear that the Dodder Bridge is a necessary condition for such development.

Let me repeat what the Minister confirmed earlier. As plans for Poolbeg are developed, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and other Departments will work with Dublin City Council, the receiver and our developers of the strategic development zone area to progress this site. This will be done to achieve the best outcome for the taxpayer and will be subject to agreement on all normal and relevant terms, including value for money aspects. To this end, the Department are already engaging with Dublin City Council with a view to supporting the council in progressing its discussions with the developer.

The review of the national development plan and the upcoming housing for all plan will be published this summer and will set out the Government's ambitious range of affordable housing targets, not just in the Poolbeg strategic development zone but across the country over the coming years. I reiterate our core approach. We are in the middle of a national housing crisis. Confronted with such an emergency, we must use all the tools at our disposal to address this challenge, across both private and public sectors. We must not tie one hand behind our backs. I am committed to boosting the supply of affordable housing and to opening up home ownership, which is crucial for our society.

I will briefly touch on one or two of the contributions that have been made. Deputies Denis Naughten and Canney quite rightly highlighted the role Irish Water has in unlocking potential development in many areas across the country. We are keen to address that in the context of the ongoing review of our national development plan.

Members will be aware that Irish Water is key to unlocking much development. We need the infrastructure to ensure it supports that development.

One Deputy stated that we should zone as much land as we want and let the market decide. That is exactly the lesson we should have learned about what we should not do. A little more than a decade ago, we had enough land zoned in this country for 10 million people, with no unnecessary infrastructure underwriting it. The key point is that as we unlock sustainable communities and build proper communities in the future, which are future-proofed for schools, water and wastewater infrastructure, we need to ensure we zone land that is key to unlocking that potential. We need to ensure we are not reinventing the wheel and committing significant State resources to sites that have no infrastructure. We heard many other Deputies articulate that zoned land has not been unlocked by that key infrastructure. I acknowledge that we have a major body of work to do to ensure we unlock these potential zoned areas. We need to be strategic about that.

I often hear rural Deputies say there is not enough zoned land in their local authority area to accommodate the housing they are required to build. However, when one looks at demand for housing in each of the 31 local authorities over the next five or six years and the amount by which the land they have already zoned exceeds capacity, in many cases the figure is more than 250% and in ten it is more than 100%. I believe the figure for County Kerry is 145%.

We need perspective in the debate when we speak about being constrained from zoning additional lands. We should always have an obligation to ensure the lands we zone are underwritten by key infrastructure that is sensible. The most important thing we must learn from the past is that we should not go down the road of building thousands of ghost estates, which require remedial funding from Departments to try to get necessary infrastructure. We need to learn from the mistakes of the past in that regard.

A large number of county development plans are being drawn up. The Office of the Planning Regulator has a key ambition to ensure all the works done are of the highest quality and stack up with our national planning framework and other strategies. We have a shared vision, right across government, to try to ensure the very best possible outcome for all our citizens.

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