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

Yesterday, when I was speaking on this group of amendments I raised a number of points, especially in relation to amendment No. 142 and the need to put as a key objective of the national planning framework the provision of a sufficient amount of affordable housing to be available to buy and rent. The points I raised yesterday were not addressed by the Minister in his response. Will he now respond to the points I am making?

I hope the Minister accepts amendment No. 142. I cannot understand why he would not want the delivery of housing that is affordable to be a key objective of our planning system. Surely that should be a key objective at any time, but now more than ever given the situation we are in and the lack of affordability? The Minister may well say that is covered elsewhere by other policies such as Part 5 and so forth, but that measure is not enough. It is not working sufficiently. The national planning framework lists the key objectives. I have no issue with the ones on the list: they are good, but having affordability at the heart of what we are trying to do in planning should be an absolute on which we should be able to agree. If we do not write it into the objectives then we will not get it flowing out of our national planning framework as much as that needs to be the case. Having those high-level objectives and getting them right is very important if the delivery of affordable housing is going to be achieved through our planning system. That is not something that is happening now. Housing is getting more and more expensive. New builds are getting more expensive. Rent is more expensive, especially in new builds. Affordability is not being delivered on the scale we need. We need it to be a key objective of our planning system, along with the other very worthwhile objectives that are there. I mentioned the other measures that I am seeking to include through amendments Nos. 138 and 141 in terms of an teanga and amendment No. 143 in terms of biodiversity and climate action.

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