Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The question of how we spend the Apple billions is one that I believe must be answered cautiously. I have heard many say that it can be used to solve the housing crisis. It must be said that housing is, without a doubt, the biggest issue facing our nation today. Much money has already been fired at it, to no avail. That is because there are many issues to solve and money will not solve them all. Viability is the foremost issue. Viability is an issue which is continuously overlooked as an issue at all. While the Planning Regulator states that viability is not a planning consideration, ignoring it will not make it go away. If planning policy is not going to make viability a consideration, the problems will remain. We can throw as much money at the problems as we like; it is only throwing good money after bad. In 2021, I advised, on numerous occasions, on the floor of this House that the policy of dezoning lands was a bad idea. It was a Stalinist policy advised to Government by a zealot in an office funded by this Government. They said I was mad. In one of my speeches, I stated:

For the first time in the history of the State, 80% of serviced zoned lands in Wexford and many other rural constituencies are to be effectively dezoned. It makes no sense. It will drive up the price of land, increase the cost of housing and magnify the current housing crisis in rural towns.

The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, went ahead with the dezoning and he wrote to every county council telling them to dezone lands. Serviced lands were dezoned. Less than three years later, in July 2024, the same Minister was writing to all local authorities to revisit their county development plans to zone more land to aid housing delivery. Who is mad now?

There are more problems that have to be solved before we can spend any more money. Irish Water is one such problem. The problems with compliance it is facing are leading to water quality issues and the wrong people are being blamed. As for problems with electricity, connections are taking far too long. In fact, we are now not able to produce enough electricity and are turning down valuable investment. There is nothing in the proposed Planning and Development Bill that will solve these problems. If anything, it will make things worse. Unfortunately for the generations of Irish people who will be locked out of housing or of ever owning their own home, the Government is not listening to anyone other than the zealot in the Custom House. The biggest issue is that the Government is awash with money, augmented by the foreign direct investment that we are so fortunate to have. That money could go back across the water at any point following the elections in November. I do not see or hear a single policy on that side of the House that will solve any of the aforementioned problems. Until the Government effectively addresses the problems, it is just wasting taxpayers' money and throwing good money after bad. In effect, the Government has to recognise what the problem is before it can solve it.

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