Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)

I move:

That Dáil Éireann:

notes that: — decades of underfunding by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments, in our water and electricity infrastructure, have created significant constraints to the increased delivery of public and private housing;

— the Commission for Regulation of Utilities has warned that data centres pose a risk to increased housing delivery, due to constraints in the electricity grid;

— Uisce Éireann have said that meeting the Government's revised housing targets would require a significant increase in capital funding, above their current programme to increase water and wastewater capacity in urban and rural areas;

— the Irish Home Builders Association have repeatedly warned that the electricity grid, drinking water, wastewater capacity and connections are a constraint on housing delivery; and

— the Government's proposed Housing Activation Office does not have the emergency powers underpinned by legislation as called for by the Housing Commission; and agrees that the Government must: — as a matter of urgency, set out its plans for the funding of, and delivery of, increased capacity of critical infrastructure required for the delivery of housing, including the electricity grid, drinking water and wastewater;

— fully implement the Housing Commission's proposal for a housing delivery oversight executive, with emergency powers underpinned by legislation; and

— properly resource our planning system, to ensure timely decisions are made on applications for the delivery of critical infrastructure and new housing.

Almost every second day, newspapers are covering the failure of the Government and its predecessors to invest in critical infrastructure and the consequential increasing risk to the delivery of housing. Only two weeks ago, the Saturday edition of the Irish Daily Mail revealed a story from Sinn Féin MEP, Lynn Boylan, highlighting the concerns of the Commission for Regulation of Utilities about the lack of grid capacity and the use of grid capacity by data centres putting the Government's housing targets at risk. Only a day or two later, The Irish Times on its front page talked about how ESB Networks's grid capacities were putting housing developments at risk across the State. It talked about Celbridge, Portlaoise, Navan, Cork and elsewhere. The following day, The Irish Times revealed information from a freedom of information request that, last year, the Government deliberately misled the House by claiming it was allocating an additional €1 billion of new money for Uisce Éireann to increase the capacity of water and wastewater treatment plants in urban and rural Ireland when it was not additional money. It was simply for its current capital programme. Yesterday, The Irish Times highlighted the important proposed masterplan of Dublin City Council in Ballyboggan of potentially 6,000 new homes and possibly even more. Again, Uisce Éireann says that because of delays in the planning system - delays caused by the failure of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to resource that system - those are also now potentially at risk. Today in the Irish Examiner, Cork County Council speaks about how the lack of investment in critical infrastructure, particularly water, means no new homes can be built. In fact, it was the Fianna Fáil mayor and Fine Gael councillors who were most critical of how their Government's failure to invest in infrastructure was causing these problems.

Meanwhile, the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, blames everyone else for the problems in our planning system. It is the fault of residents associations or environmental groups. Deputy Chambers, the Minister for Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform was at it only a week ago. Everyone knows that the key problem in our planning system is a lack of staffing in our councils, An Bord Pleanála and the environmental and planning court that deals with judicial reviews. Despite the fact the Government has been repeatedly called upon to provide this additional funding and staffing, it has failed to so. Therefore, we have a situation where the Government has finally decided to increase its housing targets, which are still too low, in the national planning framework, but failure to invest in water, electricity and planning has meant it will not be able to meet its own targets unless something urgent is done. That is why we tabled this motion on these crucial issues.

The fact that the Minister has refused to fully implement the Housing Commission's recommendation on a housing delivery oversight executive with emergency powers underpinned by legislation shows that he does not understand the extent of the problem, although it was interesting that Simon Harris suggested he might be open to the idea of legislation. I suspect he did not talk to the Minister about that before he spoke publicly.

We have set out over and over again in our alternative housing plan and our manifesto what needs to be done. The local authorities have told the Government that they need an additional 500 planning staff to deal with their existing workload, and that is before the enactment of the controversial Planning and Development Act 2024. An Bord Pleanála needs another 30 staff above those sanctioned by the Minister's predecessor and at least another three judges are needed on the environment and planning court of the High Court to deal with judicial reviews.

We also need statutory timelines at all stages of the planning process. Despite the fact we proposed these by way of amendments during the debates on the Planning and Development Act, they were rejected by the Government. We also need significant increased investment in water and wastewater infrastructure. As the Minister will be aware, Uisce Éireann has requested an additional €2 billion. We have yet to hear the Government's response to that. We also need increased investment in our grid capacity to ensure connections are available and, of course, we need the full implementation of the Housing Commission's recommendation. The housing activation office does not do that.

It is time for the Government to stop blaming everyone else. It is the Government's responsibility and its failure to invest in critical infrastructure is causing the problem. It is the Government's failure to invest in staffing in our planning system as well as its controversial proposed changes to the planning system that are causing so many delays. Ultimately, it is the Government's failure to invest in the delivery of genuinely affordable homes that is causing so many difficulties for working people. On that basis, I commend the motion to the House and urge the Minister not to continue repeating the mistakes of the past, but to respond to the situation with the urgency that is required. Otherwise, he will not even be able to meet the Government's own modest housing targets.

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