Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State has not answered the question. Does the Minister pass on the information his Department gathers to the people who develop housing policy? The Minister of State gave an interesting summary of the document, which I am beginning to suspect he has not read. The Minister of State said the document says we need more documents with more data. That is not what it says. It mentions that and says more study would be useful, but what the document actually says is 85% of all planning applications are granted. In rural Ireland the proportion granted is more like 90% to 95%, but almost everywhere it is over 70% and is usually 80%. The note says there are loads of planning permissions given for apartments and houses, but they are not commenced. The document's authors say they are not exactly sure why that is, though it is definitely not to do with planning objections. They say it is probably to do with land banking, speculation and viability issues.

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