Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the clarification the Minister gave here and at the end of Second Stage concerning his intentions. None of that information was given at the briefing we had with the Department earlier in the week. We were not told this was about particular sites the Minister has in mind with regard to modern methods of construction in particular. I am not in any way opposed to what the Minister seeks to achieve. I understand he seeks to deliver additional social, cost rental and affordable homes quickly involving modern methods of construction. However, I have serious concerns about what he is trying to do to facilitate that. We have a history in this country of, in most cases, systems-building social homes that were not well planned or designed, caused huge problems in communities and ended up being demolished at great environmental cost and cost to the State and then replaced. They were largely system-built homes. The promises made at the time concerning modern methods of construction are much the same as those now made by producers and manufacturers, that they are factory built, therefore the quality will be really good and there will not be problems with them.

There are great advantages to modern methods of construction in terms of speed, cost and sustainability. A home with modern methods of construction can be very high quality build. There is no issue with that. When some manufacturers are able to build high quality on a smaller and lower scale, there can be issues when they go to scale up. There can be issues, maybe not with the construction off site, but with the assembly and construction on site. That is where problems in the past have arisen at massive cost to the State.

I want acknowledgement from the Minister that in the past there have been problems with this, acknowledgement of lessons learned and details of the safeguards that have been put in place. This is not simply a historic issue because quite recently in Ireland there has been huge cost from modern methods involving off-site construction and assembly on site. In schools, we have had huge issues with fire safety, as we have had in building more generally. The use of timber frame is environmentally sustainable and we should be doing more of it, but there have been huge issues because it has not been done well in terms of fire separation. We saw the rapid spread of fire in a housing estate. Luckily it was during the daytime when no one was asleep.

If it is done, it has to be done well. The concern I have is that one of the key safeguards to make sure it is planned and designed well is the Part 8 public participation process. That enforces certain standards and accountability on the local authority. If that is removed from the process, what are the alternative safeguards? I have not heard from the Minister of those alternative safeguards. I have not heard him acknowledging that if this is done we must learn from past mistakes, including recent ones.

A key issue in housing construction and very important when using modern methods is that amenities, community facilities and playgrounds are put in and it is done well. If we remove public participation from it, will the public be able to ask for those things? Will there be any sightline of accountability on that? We have not heard from the Minister that he will fund those much-needed facilities with it. I have a concern if this is not done properly and modern methods of construction are treated differently from other forms of delivery. I do not think they should be but they will be treated differently because the Minister says there will be no public participation process for these. That is what the Minister is proposing and telling us. He can shake his head all he wants but that is exactly-----

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