Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. Sinn Féin will be more than happy to support these draft regulations. It is an eminently sensible proposition from the Government. By way of a response at the end of the debate, if the Minister of State has time, or, if not, by way of correspondence with the Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage, it would be useful to clarify whether the purpose of the regulations is to continue to facilitate those facilities currently availing of the exempted development regulations passed previously or if there are any plans to have new facilities. That will not change our mind in terms of supporting the regulations, but it would be very useful to know.

I commend our planning authorities, the HSE, the Dublin Region Homeless Executive and approved housing body voluntary homeless service providers for the very speedy way in which they took these exempted regulations previously, in particular in terms of ensuring the very vulnerable homeless population in our urban hostels were kept incredibly safe during Covid-19. I want to bring one category of exempted development to the attention of the Minister of State and I would like to make the case for him and his officials to consider facilitating the permanence of those facilities when these exemptions expire.

One of the particular innovations of the Dublin Region Homeless Executive and the HSE were facilities known as medical shielding units for people who were single and homeless and generally in congregated settings. Not only were people moved out of congregated settings during Covid-19, they were put into very specific bespoke facilities because they were at an even higher risk of contracting Covid and possibly because of other underlying conditions that would have had serious consequences. In these facilities, people were not just congregated into their own rooms but additional medical facilities were also provided. That is why they are called shielding units. What is really interesting is that not only did the units provide greater protection from Covid-19 for the people who moved into them, in recent conversations I have had with some GPs supporting those individuals, they have noticed a remarkable improvement in all aspects of their lives. Their mental health, addiction management and general sense of well-being has improved enormously. There is a strong case for those facilities, in particular, to be made permanent if possible.

I fully support a standard change of use planning application if, for example, an environmental impact assessment or appropriate assessment is required. That is probably not the case for these facilities. I am raising this issue because it might be something the officials could consider, rather than those facilities having to go through a formal change of use process in a year or two. If they did not require an environmental impact assessment or appropriate assessment and instead some other mechanism was still in existence to deal with that, it would be eminently sensible. Sinn Féin is happy to support the proposition in front of us and will continue to work constructively with the Minister of State on these or other necessary emergency measures while we are still living with Covid-19.

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