Gillian Toole (Meath East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish the Ministers well in their new portfolios. I am grateful for the opportunity to make the following points today. Just before I came down, I saw an announcement regarding cost-rental and affordable home funding. County Meath is included in that. That is a welcome development this afternoon.

On the priorities and recommendations outlined in the Housing Commission report, we have acknowledged that many are already under way. I have selected a number of areas that I feel are important for consideration and which did not receive as much emphasis in the report as they could have. They also have a bearing on community safety. One relates to the dereliction in many of our towns and villages in urban and rural areas. Proposals for living over shops and the possibility of introducing a business scheme have merit and should be prioritised. They would also contribute to passive surveillance in town centres.

Examples from abroad I raised with a previous Minister include andelsbolig in Copenhagen and the LILAC project. The latter is a co-operative project in Leeds. The other involves the repurposing of older buildings in town centres. The cost of the building and its refurbishment and a modest margin are divided equally among the number of units. It is another type of affordable housing measure. The details were given to Eoghan Murphy a few years ago. That model has been very successful in Denmark.

A second area relates to the recent long-anticipated planning Act. This issue may have been an omission but it is very prevalent in County Meath. When planning permission is granted, there is a five-year period to execute the project. In parts of east Meath, this has contributed to price inflation. There is a wait-and-see approach and a watchful eye is kept on the activities of other companies. It is definitely not healthy and does not support affordable housing. Perhaps legislation requiring commencement notices to be filed within 12 to 18 months of the grant of planning permission could be looked at. I have checked with financiers and, in the main, finance is generally in place before planning permission is even applied for. That is something that might accelerate matters and it should be considered.

The lack of infrastructure being in place first is a contributory factor to existing residents' objections to planning applications. Where people are already sitting in commuter hell and where the road network, public transport network, school places and all of the other things we have discussed through various channels in this Chamber are lacking, this contributes to discomfort and, in many cases, anger among existing residents. The infrastructure piece in the commission's report is therefore extremely important.

We are not short of data. We have data from the CSO and various other streams. We should use AI to put all of the different subjects we discuss here together for discussion within and outside of Government for collaboration and forward planning.

On homelessness, it is sad to say but there is a lack of hostel accommodation in the commuter counties, excluding County Louth. Meath County Council has an arrangement to share the accommodation of Louth County Council. However, vulnerable people may be on a methadone programme or similar.

The logistics of somebody in County Meath being temporarily accommodated in County Louth and then making their way to a community pharmacy on the far side of the county is a contributor to people losing their therapeutic regime and gives rise to an unsteadiness of tenure. Hostel accommodation is something that has not been given a high enough priority.

Again, if we look at reasons for homelessness from chief executives' reports around the country, the primary reason in most counties where I have looked at the data is marriage breakdown. This might seem entirely disconnected from the subject matter but it has a very high social significance, and that is linked to the cost of housing. Automatically, if we have a high cost of housing, we have both partners out at work. Then we have the logistics of who is responsible for what in terms of the domestic happiness piece. We know from requests for housing, emergency accommodation and local authority housing in the case of marital breakdown that there are two people seeking accommodation rather than one. There are a few threads that have been of lower priority.

I apologise, as I should have brought to the attention of An Cathaoirleach Gníomhach that Deputy Nolan has had to return to her constituency so I will take a little bit of her time.

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