Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)

I welcome aspects of this legislation. We will be supporting it. However, I have raised many very valid points in this House around viability and around reducing the costs. I have brought points to the Minister about people with planning permission who want to build, who have a housing need, who are renting and cannot afford it, and he has not engaged with any of those points. I ask the Minister to engage with this because there is a value to engaging with the Opposition as well. It is very disappointing that issues around the demand have not even been mentioned by the Minister regarding the housing crisis.

I want to raise a number of important points. Through the parliamentary question process, I have raised a number of questions with the Minister. They were around how long the average wait is with An Bord Pleanála, around the number of judicial reviews and around the cost of judicial reviews to An Bord Pleanála. The Minister replied that he did not know. I also asked questions around the various housing schemes, for example, the affordable housing schemes and first-home schemes in terms of delivery. Again, the Minister replied that he did not know. These are key performance indicators. These are the tools and the levers which the Minister can use to activate. It is very disappointing these key metrics are unknown to the Minister and his Department. I will tell the Minister: six homes have been delivered under the first home scheme in Mayo since its introduction over five or six years.

Under the affordable housing scheme, five homes have been delivered in Mayo. This is an abysmal record. Is that why the Minister will not tell us? Is that why we have to go digging? I am very concerned about An Bord Pleanála, by the way, with regard to the cost of judicial reviews to the State. I would like the Minister to reply to me with that information.

I want to raise a concern I have regarding planners. My understanding is that there has been a huge lack of planners in An Bord Pleanála, and the Government has essentially stolen them from the local authorities. It has robbed Peter to pay Paul. What assessment now has been done with regard to the delays that may inevitably follow as a result of taking so many planners from local authorities?

I also want to raise an important point, if I could have the Minister's attention, please. We have dezoned land at a time of significant population growth. Within those county development plans, we have population targets. My concern here is that these targets are being used as a ceiling upon housing delivery. This is really concerning because we are in a housing crisis; 16,000 people are in emergency accommodation. That list is going to grow, and yet a housing development on the Killala Road in Ballina was rejected. It was approved by Mayo County Council and rejected by An Bord Pleanála, and it was objected to and overturned was for two reasons, one of which was that "population targets of the core strategy could be exceeded by the residential development". That was the key reason it was rejected. This is a site with all of the services. A very good, reputable builder in Ballina who is capable of building 100 houses - not all of them can - had the finance ready to go, and it was rejected, not for any significant reason but because of the population targets. It comes at a time when there is a huge housing need in Ballina and right across Mayo. It also comes at a time when Hollister has announced an €80 million investment, which would bring significant jobs to the area, and the county development plan - the Office of the Planning Regulator, OPR, which is under the Minister's remit as well, has a big role in this, by the way - rejected it. It is incredible. I have done a lot of research in this regard. I want the Minister to issue a section 29 notification, which is allowable in the planning Act, to revise the housing targets and allow this development to take place. It is hard to believe that in a housing crisis, we have built into the system a metric that actually prevents housing delivery. We have such a housing crisis, so that needs to happen. I ask the Minister to follow up with me in this regard. He can issue a section 29 notification. He can revise the housing targets for Ballina, which would allow this development to take place. He could do that if he wanted to, but he appears to lack the will to proactively work on this. It is so frustrating.

I welcome this part of the legislation relating to serial objectors. This needs to end. We cannot have a situation where people in County Donegal can object to a development in County Cork, for example. That aspect, and the significant delays in An Bord Pleanála, have allowed the facilitation of bogus organisations operating on environmental grounds to exploit the situation and hold builders to ransom with regard to housing delivery.

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