Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)

I sat in the housing committee with the Minister of State last year when the planning Bill was pushed through. We warned at the time of the consequences when the Government rushes through complex and serious legislation. Here we are now, 12 months on, trying to fix the errors. Why is there always a rush when dealing with complex legislation? Instead of learning from the mistakes of the past, the Government is pushing this legislation through with no committee oversight or pre-legislative scrutiny. Once again, the Government is trying to rush through planning legislation without giving enough time for security or allowing experts in the field to analyse it and point out unforeseen circumstances that the Minister or the Department did not see. What we do not want, but what I think will happen, is that in 12 months time, we will be back here again with more legislation to fix the problems in this Bill because it has been rushed.

The Government has spent time trying to scapegoat and blame everyone else for the housing crisis. It is trying to blame the planners and it wants to hear from them. It is too busy trying to scapegoat people. Uisce Éireann is a great crowd to blame because it can be blamed for everything. Do not get me wrong. It has a lot to answer for, but that is because of years of neglect and underinvestment. Even now, when Uisce Éireann is looking for €2 billion to make sure there is water to deliver the housing we need, that money still has not been granted. Local authorities are another great one for backbenchers to get up and blame, while forgetting that the parties opposite have been in government for ten and 15 years, respectively.

The Government tries to focus the blame on the Opposition. The usual question from the Government is to ask where the solutions are. Then, every week or second week, we bring forward constructive solutions that we hope the Government will take on board, and it does not. It is time to stop blaming everyone else and take responsibility.

Tens of thousands of homes could be built in this State. They have planning permission right now but, instead, the land is being used for speculation and no building is happening. I will give an example from Cork. The Good Shepherd convent site, which had been idle for years, got planning permission in 2017. The planning permission was granted but nothing has been built since. They got the planning permission because it made the site more valuable and then they flipped it for more money. It was about speculators making profit. Just to let people know, that site has been burned down numerous times and the building has been destroyed. I think of the people who live around it. I think of the consequences for firefighters and first responders who have had to go out to that site constantly, putting their lives on the line while speculators are laughing all the way to the bank.

We agree there are circumstances where planning permission can be extended but we need accountability. We need to know why developers are looking for an extension. We want homes built and we want delivery. What we do not want is further speculation and what we cannot allow is that potential homes are not built. To have uncommenced planning permissions is costly and a huge barrier to delivering homes that people desperately need. I think of all the funding that has gone into the granting of planning permission, whether in regard to the planners, the local authority, the technology, the newspapers or the communities. At the same time, local communities are making submissions and engaging in good faith, and they want to see development. They want to make sure that it is sustainable development that is best suited to their community. This takes up a lot of time at public meetings, committees and draft submissions and, therefore, once planning is granted, the expectation is that houses will be built. Instead, developers speculate on the land and try to flip it.

The problem is that this leaves local authorities and utility companies in a very difficult position. Where there is a limited capacity and that capacity has been allocated to a planning permission, it means future or other planning permissions cannot go ahead. It then becomes a blockage to delivery. That is why, when planning permissions are in place, we need them to be delivered.

We want to come up with solutions. We want this to deliver. I believe this is a missed opportunity by the Government. What we should have had is more emphasis on time, financing, resources, local authority planning departments and the resourcing of An Bord Pleanála. The Minister has missed a shot here.

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