Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)

I move:

That Dáil Éireann:

acknowledges that:

— the persistent shortfall in the delivery of housing, particularly social, affordable, and cost-rental units, constitutes a structural failure of public policy;

— successive Governments have fallen short of their own housing delivery targets, and a significant proportion of zoned, developable land remains idle due to systemic delays in planning, infrastructure alignment and institutional coordination; and

— local authorities, statutory agencies, and utility providers are frequently constrained by fragmented decision-making, bureaucracy and lack of accountability, leading to protracted delivery timelines, despite the availability of zoned and demand-sensitive lands;

further recognises that:

— excessive procedural rigidity in planning, procurement, and utility coordination, while rooted in the need for accountability, has created a delivery environment that is adversarial, inefficient, and increasingly unfit for the urgency of the housing crisis; and

— a generation of young Irish people are increasingly being forced to emigrate, as any possibility of home ownership slips further out of reach, with house prices soaring and affordable supply at record lows, and many now face the harsh reality that they may never be able to buy a home or even afford to live in the communities where they were born and raised; and accordingly, calls on the Government to:

— declare a National Housing and Infrastructure Emergency and introduce time-bound emergency legislation, enabling local authorities and developers to accelerate delivery of housing on already-zoned, infrastructure-ready land;

— establish a dedicated Housing Delivery Acceleration Taskforce, reporting on a regional basis directly to the Taoiseach, comprising senior officials from the Departments of Housing, Local Government and Heritage; Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation; Transport; Uisce Éireann (formerly Irish Water); the Construction Industry Federation; ESB Executives; and Chief Executives of respective Councils, to coordinate and address cross-agency blockages, with all reports to be published quarterly;

— introduce a statutory obligation on local authorities to hold round table pre-planning meetings within 30 days of request, with minutes to be available to both parties for further reference;

— amend national planning policy to permit pre-approved, standardised housing designs for social and affordable developments, to reduce delays and professional duplication, while maintaining compliance with Building Regulations and Building Control (Amendment) Regulations 2014;

— reform rural housing guidelines, to permit housing on family-held farmland for more than one family member, subject to percolation and safety standards;

— reform planning exemption regulations, to allow for up to 63 square meter structures for modular homes, extensions, granny flats (attached/unattached), or garage conversions, with enabling legislation to be presented by 30th October, 2025;

— restrict planning objections to persons with local standing, to eliminate serial objectors;

— instruct Uisce Éireann to publish a transparent and time-bound schedule of infrastructure delivery, prioritising zones with planning permission or active land management, making additional funding available to Uisce Éireann where they meet or surpass the schedule;

— in towns with no Uisce Éireann sewage schemes, assign funding to community development companies to employ consultants that can draw up schemes to Uisce Éireann specification, enabling fast track delivery of sewage schemes in towns not covered by Uisce Éireann, and additionally, to assign funding for lands for water treatment plants and for delivery of overall project;

— ensure that Uisce Éireann recognise contractors formerly experienced in Group Water Schemes/Council Schemes (sewage/water) as competent contractors for frameworks inclusion;

— introduce a performance-linked funding model for local authorities, tied to:

— activation rates of zoned land;

— timely refurbishment and re-letting of vacant social housing units; and

— compliance with prescribed turnaround times in housing delivery processes;

— ensure high-performing councils are publicly recognised and resourced through bonus allocations, with fast-tracked funding drawdown, with underperforming council results published publicly:

— with performance of local authorities under the performance-linked metrics to be reported to the Housing Delivery Acceleration Taskforce quarterly; and

— where a local authority underperforms for three consecutive quarters, the Chief Executive Officer and Director of Housing will be called on to account for under-performance;

— require Uisce Éireann, ESB and local authorities to jointly publish a quarterly housing infrastructure delivery scorecard, detailing progress on enabling works, void turnarounds, and utility connections by county, with a focus on ensuring all zoned land is serviced;

— ensure all local authority Chief Executive contracts include performance related clauses going forward;

— develop a streamlined, fast-tracked system allowing local authorities to recoup 95 per cent of costs associated with bringing voids back into productive use within 30 days of completion, financed by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage;

— introduce a streamlined approval of Part I, Section 5 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, exemption under Croí Cónaithe, where there have been no prohibition notices linked to the property in the last seven years;

— reform procurement thresholds within six months, to allow proven small- and mid-sized public and private builders, with a track record of compliant delivery within the public or private sector in the past five years, to qualify for public housing frameworks;

— in line with European Union (EU) Value Added Tax (VAT) Directive allowances, introduce a temporarily reduced VAT rate of 5 per cent on construction materials for housing development for the term of the declared emergency;

— fast-track key apprenticeships in construction and trades by developing modular, dual-delivery formats that retain EU-mandated standards, while reducing time to certification;

— direct SOLAS, Education and Training Boards and the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, to expand access to construction skills training, particularly in regions with below-average output;

— mandate the Central Bank of Ireland and the Department of Finance to report quarterly on the proportion of residential units acquired by bulk purchasers and non-resident buyers, with a view to transparency and demand-side management; and

— upgrade all phase 2 lands to phase 1, to enable urgent building on zoned land and immediately bring infrastructure required for immediate development.

It is rather regrettable that the Government has not accepted this motion. I read the Government's amendment and all it does is tell us how great everything is. If everything was great, we would not have young people be leaving this country for lack of housing or data from the Central Bank and the CSO. All we are doing is putting constructive proposals together to try to help the housing situation. This is not having a go at Government. This about sitting down with the various stakeholders to try to make sure we drive this forward. We have always said to the leaders of the country that if it does not take a housing emergency to drive things, in social and affordable housing, we will still be talking about this in a few years' time. This legislation should be fast-tracked as happened with the former Minister Eamon Ryan's legislation on jet engines, which was put through in a day. We were able to get rid of a lot of the bureaucracy is holding things up.

Today the Government has decided to oppose what we are saying. We have said is that there should be a pre-planning meeting within 30 days. Obviously, the Government does not think people should have that. A builder should be entitled to a pre-planning meeting within 30 days. Irish Water needs to get funding but it needs to be targeted. It needs to be on condition of delivery and time of delivery. What is a zoned site or what is a zoned area for housing? There could be a zoned area where no transport plan has been done by the councils. I can show plenty of proof of that, even though the land has been zoned for a number of years. It may have no Irish Water infrastructure, no sewerage infrastructure and no electricity. That is a bare, naked site. We need to do up a list of sites that are ready to go.

This is an idea that could be implemented overnight. This idea does not cost money. Darragh O'Brien gave €30 million to the councils and Irish Water for towns that had no water or sewerage infrastructure. For sewerage schemes, he said he wanted Irish Water and the councils to get together. That was three years ago. This is not about money; it is about not delivering. Nothing has happened in Ireland; not one red cent has been spent. I am asking the Government to give the money to community development groups. They are willing to do the work. I have spoken to them. They will help the Government to deliver houses. I am talking about doing properly to Irish Water specifications and not any lesser specifications.

Regarding the procurement rules, about which everyone knows and which were raised with the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste, if a person builds 100 houses in the private sector but has not done a State job in the past five years, they are not allowed on to the framework. That is wrong. This person might be as good a builder as someone else. On top of that, if people who were contractors to the councils and to local group water schemes do not go through a big process with Irish Water, they are not nominated for the framework contracts. Those are two simple things that could be done overnight.

The Minister of State knows about phase 2 lands and that 70% of phase 1 has to be built. We need to make as much land available as possible and look to see where the sewerage and water infrastructure is so builders are ready to go. Why are we holding up sites, whether as a result of planning or whatever, for builders? We know what the density of a site is supposed to be. We know about the designs and everything else but we are holding up builders from getting going.

Regarding section 5 exemptions, croí cónaithe is a great scheme. I am not taking from it but the problem is getting into the scheme. Someone might have a house that is, say, 100 years old. Depending on the council, if the owner knocked a chimney because it was cracked or put a porch onto the house in the 1970s, to get into the croí cónaithe scheme, the council might say the owner has to go for full planning permission because a change was made to the house, and we see this week in, week out. That is complete lunacy. There is a simple way of doing that. If there has been no prohibition notice lodged with the council in the past seven years, the owner should be given the go-ahead.

We went for a temporary VAT reduction on materials. It is about €15,000 because we did not go for the whole house for the simple reason that it is given a six- to 12-months' period. If it was done and not passed on, then it has to revert. We have to try things.

The Minister of State is aware that if there is a void, the council gets about €11,000 from the Department. A lot of these houses are costing from €30,000 to €50,000 to do up. The Department needs to guarantee them the money within 30 days of finishing, but it needs to be 95% of the cost. Councils are picking the best houses to do up, because these will obviously cost the least amount of money. Councils are telling me this. We need to make sure we do that.

On social housing, why are we designing different houses in different counties in different ways, with architects designing them and proposals going back and forth to the Department? Why do we not have standardised, two-, three- and four-bedroom houses, for the country? If a house has seven or ten windows, they should be of a standard size. There should be standard specification, standard everything in the way we regularise it and cut out all this craic of over and back.

On rural housing guidelines, we see problems where family members are trying to build. More than one should be allowed to build because, at the end of the day, we have an emergency and if we have an emergency, we have to try to sort it out. Family members need to be allowed to build on farmland, provided sightlines and percolation tests are okay. On top of that, we see local need. If a teacher moves to an area in rural Ireland, they are needed in that area but the problem is they are not from that area originally and some councils will not give them planning permission.

On modulars and granny flats, we are proposing 600 sq. ft. or 63 sq. m. These should be exempt, provided they are built at the back of an existing house. If the garage is at the back of the house and can be converted, it should exempt. This is how we will get things rolling, helping people to put a roof over their heads. The same should apply to modular homes. I believe the modular homes for Ukrainians are 600 sq. ft.

On top of that, we are allowing someone from, say, Waterford to object to someone building in Galway. We need to bring in a rule that a person has the right to object if they are from that area. Someone from 120 miles to 130 miles away should not be in a position to object. This needs to be sorted.

We need to produce performance-linked funding for local authorities. The better and more aggressive a local authority is, the more funding it should get to build houses. We need to reward high-performing councils. Production of and housing delivery should be built into CEO contracts for the simple reason that we have to drive and have incentives for delivery.

I know the Taoiseach has a sort of a task force or a housing body set up, but we need quarterly reports in each area from the likes of the ESB, Irish Water and the local authorities. This would be a public scorecard on how the councils are performing around the country.

On apprenticeships, we need to try to fast-forward it. The excuse has always been that Covid held them up. Some youngsters spent up to six years trying to get a four-year course done. If we can do it of teachers, we should be able to do it for the construction industry, because it is a critically important industry at this time.

Regarding mandatory reporting, we know outside interests buy huge tracts of houses. There has to be mandatory reporting of non-residents buying large blocks of housing. We need to know what the pressures are and what is happening in this country.

It is disappointing when such simple, straightforward solutions have been put forward in relation to the whole housing issue. The Government has done things. I am not saying it has not. I have said that croí cónaithe is a good thing and that some of the rent reliefs are good. I am not against that. The Minister of State talks about extra money, but money might not be the only problem. The roadblocks are blocking people. Everyone is talking about social and affordable housing. Our youngsters are leaving the country because they cannot see a future in a house. Together in this Dáil we need to solve that problem.

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