Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am glad the Minister's colleagues are here, especially the Minister for Housing, Heritage and Local Government, a person for whom I have high regard. Mr. Michael O'Flynn, the highly-respectable building contractor and developer of more than 40 years' experience, said in an article in The Irish Times by Mr. Ciarán Hancock last week, and which should be compulsory reading, that the lack of zoned land was at the heart of the housing crisis. That is down to poor planning. Politicians need to get over the mistakes of the past and start talking to and listening to the people who have experience in home building, that is, the developers who are left and have ability.

There are people here who are talking and talking and have never and will never build a house. Last year, the O'Flynn Group completed 480 homes. Mr. O'Flynn said that the reduction of VAT in building is vital. Developers are overpaying for land in a race to get sites. The national framework is flawed in that it is based on the premise that 40% of all developed land should be brownfield but it needs to be viable and affordable. If a proper economic assessment of that policy was done, it would be clear that it is not possible for that brownfield land to be developed without subsidisation or incentives.

Nothing can be developed, unless it is viable. The fast-tracking of planning through the system of strategic housing developments was good but has now become mired in legal reviews and is being replaced instead of being improved. We are throwing out the legislation and that is incorrect.

The banks at present in Ireland are not fit for purpose. People cannot get loans. Homeowners or those who want to be homeowners, small builders and medium-sized and larger groups cannot get access to money. AIB is continuously putting up signs to say it is backing brave. It should be made take down those signs because they are stupid and very annoying for people who are being taken to hell and back begging for money and loans. They are in the bank looking at this sign saying AIB is backing brave. AIB would not know what brave was if it hit it in the face.

We need to zone more land and to reduce the 13.5% VAT rate. We need to reform planning to reduce delays. We need to loosen the Central Bank of Ireland mortgage rules to allow people to borrow four and a half times their income rather than the current three and a half times. In the past, land prices were 10% of the house cost. Now they could be 30%. VAT in the past was 3%. Now it is 13.5%. A shared equity scheme would not be needed if the Government was not taking so much VAT in the first instance. People think-----

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