Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am sure the Minister of State will agree there are multiple issues in planning currently, many of which are not resolved in this Bill. In fact there are areas in the Bill that open us up to many more points of litigation the whole way through.

There is one point I would like to make and repeat if necessary is that we cannot ever block citizens' rights to access the law and to make an objection. People who are genuinely affected must be allowed to object and be afforded due process. While the new Bill is exhaustive, what is required is a proper planning system. The current system is broken, mostly from continuing meddling. Although the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell and his senior Minister are well intentioned, let us not forget that so was the former Minister, Deputy Coveney, when he developed the strategic housing development, SHD, process, which ended up as little more than €10 million bill for An Bord Pleanála. A more targeted legislation is required.

Many Members will have seen the "RTÉ Investigates" programme on Monday night. I commend Barry O' Kelly and his team on having put together a wonderful programme for the public to see just what goes on in the real world of building houses. It was nothing short of pure exploitation. Many people have said that we must now see targeted legislation and it is badly required. It was amazing that never had anyone in this House mentioned to me that this practice was going on, but since the programme aired, more than 60 TDs have come to me and told me their stories. It is clearly a very widespread and very well known practice but it is not mentioned in this Bill. It was evident from the programme that the system lends itself to no-cost jeopardy exploitation and racketeering. It is as simple as that. I was surprised to learn that virtually everybody elected in the House came to tell me a story of this. The Bill does not cater for it even with that level of recognition. Albeit the Minister of State is well intentioned, he is opening up areas of litigation for years to come if he does not have more targeted interventions. I have met no-one who believes this Bill will solve the housing crisis. In fact, they are all of the opinion that a pause should be taken, a step back as it were, to ensure that we do the right thing. The real focus here must be proper planning.

Again, I preface my remarks by saying that everyone affected must have the right to object but the racketeering must stop. This must happen at first instance when the planning application is first made to the local authority. I will just repeat that for the Minister of State, because this is very important. The racketeering can only be stopped, and that must happen at first instance, when the planning application is made at the local authority stage. It must be at the first instance. The application cannot be left go to An Bord Pleanála or to the judicial review stage. We must introduce some sort of adjudication system at the entry level to ensure that any complaint is validated before it can proceed. Locals with valid complaints need not fear this system because ultimately, if anything, a valid objection will in fact give credibility to it and the sincerity of it. The idea is that locals can continue to make their complaints and they will have valid objections. What we saw on "RTÉ Investigates" were people in the west of the country making planning objections in the south of the country on planning applications and sites they had never visited. It is clearly not a valid objection and there were so many. In one instance I saw the submission that was a rebuttal to their objection. I can tell you that it was very evident and plain to be seen by a trained eye in the planning process that this was not a valid objection. Because it was probably never going to be looked at until the next stage where the appeal may have to be granted, that is where we need this validation at first instance.

In effect, something must be put in place to ensure that the complaint is substantive. If a complaint is made on an environmental point, which generally these are, it should at the very least be signed off by a registered environmentalist in order to be moved to the next stage of An Bord Pleanála, as this is where the cost jeopardy begins and ultimately passes to the end purchaser if the racketeering merchant is successful. Certifying or validating the objection, the complaint or the observation must happen at local authority level. Such objectors cannot be given an opportunity to withdraw their complaint as this can mean they have extorted the money, as we saw from the programme, or they were threatened with legal action. Either way the opportunity has to be stamped out.

Objectors are not the only problem facing the builders. In the case where An Bord Pleanála decisions are judicially reviewed - which is frequently and up to the tune of €10 million up to the last time I checked - we have seen the board concede on more and more cases recently. Take on board the residential zoned land tax, which is also coming into effect in January next year. If this racketeering continues and we see lands caught up in this scenario, they will be caught for the residential zoned land tax. Ultimately that will add more cost, which I will talk about shortly. We need to have everyone singing off the same hymn sheet if this housing crisis is to be solved. I often get the impression, to be fair, that there is no understanding that these issues even exist and particularly now that we have 700 pages of a Bill. This proposed new legislation has not mentioned this practice or dealing with this practice. I have come across no section that does so and I have done my best in such an extensive document. I have also given it to people with much more experience than me and there is nothing here that deals with the issue. For the past decade, builders and developers have been regarded as pariahs, by people inside this House and outside this House. That is the narrative being peddled. In this debate last week it was said that nearly 20 years ago, we were building 90,000 houses and now we are struggling to build 30,000 per annum. The laws were the same 20 years ago.

The Government must sort out the problems, as outlined, in the first instance. That will stop racketeering, prevent extortion, give genuine objectors credibility and go a long way towards giving the certainty the planning process is supposed to give.

We have seen reports in newspapers in recent days about the increased cost of building. Listening to the radio and reading newspaper articles, I learned that in the past three and a half years, a three-bedroom semi-detached house has risen in price by €90,000 in Dublin. That is 23% since 2020, leaving anyone earning less than €127,000, either individually or as a couple, unable to obtain a mortgage if one is required. The same survey stated the cheapest region to purchase a house is the north west, at €354,000. I am pretty sure earnings in the north west do not stretch to that amount to purchase a home or obtain a mortgage.

The survey was carried out by the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland, SCSI, which states costs have been driven up by a combination of hard costs, such as bricks and mortar, which are up 27%, and soft costs, such as land, development levies, VAT and developers’ margins, which are up 21%. The SCSI says the average cost of a three-bedroom semi-detached home in the private sector is €397,000. I do not think anyone could be surprised by these figures. Why do we have 100,000 units with planning granted but not commenced? According to Mr. Micheál Mahon, who delivered this survey in the media today, viability is the main issue. That is something I have been repeating on the floor of this House for the past 12, if not 18, months. Mr. Mahon said many planning applications for developments that are not commencing were made in 2019 and 2020 and got through the process. It took that length of time. According to the survey, building cost have risen across the board by 23% since 2020. There is the viability issue. It is not rocket science. If we have a viability issue, it is clear we have an affordability issue. On top of this, we will see a planning policy of dezoning lands. Clearly, if we dezone land and make less of it available, it will drive up the cost. That is evident from the survey.

The only good thing I can say happened in the past 12 months was that developer levies at local level were done away with for the 12-month period. Then the Government brought in a 5% concrete levy. One measure counteracts the other. The costs are going up and up so the viability issue is becoming greater and greater. At some point, somebody in government will conclude this will not work. People’s ability to get a mortgage is, with the cost-of-living increases, dwindling. The limit has only recently been increased from three times to four times earnings and it will have to increase it again. This is a vicious circle. The toll increase will drive up costs further. These are simple little things we are not cognisant of.

In its current format, I do not believe I will be voting in favour of the Bill. There are many things the Government could do. It could reduce the VAT rate. Today, the Government’s tax take accounts for 40% of the cost of a new build. Government Members need to think about that.

See this speech in context