Gillian Toole (Meath East, Independent)

I thank the Minister for the briefing and for the time he has put into committee meetings, which were very informative. I welcome elements of this amendment Bill, in particular with regard to judicial reviews and what I would call the disassociated objectors from one end of the country to the other. With the developer-led model, we cannot lose sight of serving the common good in tandem with the delivery of infrastructure, particularly social infrastructure. I want to flag that.

With regard to the area of viability and affordability, while I am probably being a bit cheeky, I will speak to possible future amendments in areas that will directly underpin the affordability piece. I will give an example of an area close to me in Ratoath, County Meath. The price of an acre in 1994 was £30,000. In 1998, the farmer was paid £120,000 an acre. The developer paid £220,000, so there was a gap. This was unzoned agricultural land in 1998. Similarly, NAMA had a parcel of land on the outskirts of Ratoath. It was put on the market in 2015 with an asking price of €2.7 million. In 2018, it was withdrawn. In 2019, it was put back on again with a guide price of €7.5 million. At the time, I was poking and prodding Meath County Council and making a serious effort to get it to engage with NAMA and to get NAMA to engage with it, but nothing was happening. Lo and behold, the 27.6 acres were sold for €16.8 million, which works out at €625,000 per acre for a mix of zoned and agricultural land.

We are starting from a very high base. I know that, given our history, the issue of the price of the land is very sensitive. A good actuary, taking into account the loss of CAP income, the possible loss of solar farm income, the age to retirement of a farmer and the need to build in a margin could come to a fair price that would allow the affordability piece to be worked out in the future.

Another example is from Ashbourne, County Meath, where councillors voted against the total provision of social housing. There is a huge need for affordable housing in that area but, again, the purchase price will never deliver affordable social or, indeed, affordable private purchase there. It is another serious area that has to be watched.

Another area is that of VAT. We take an all-Ireland approach to some issues, such as cardiovascular health, and we have the Dublin-Belfast economic corridor, so we are moving in the direction of more and more processes being all-Ireland. There is one glaringly obvious area, which is zero VAT on new homes in the North of Ireland. Again, it is something that could be examined.

I look forward to the Minister's dereliction plan. There is great potential there, similar to what the Danes do with their andelsbolig model and, closer to us, Leeds has the LILAC co-operative housing model. As the Minister said at the committee meeting, the infrastructure is there and the price of land may be lower in some cases, but it will allow that opportunity for rightsizing and for age-friendly housing. It is definitely something that can be worked on.

There is another area I would like to flag with him. I am effectively in the commuter belt. I am in a little urban pocket between Ratoath and Dunshaughlin that has many older people who have lived all their lives in the country. There is the potential for the use of farm buildings for conversion to housing for rural residents who are not necessarily ready, physically, mentally or otherwise, for the transition to urban ageing. There is also potential from an agricultural perspective. The land cost would absolutely be lower than the urban land cost.

With regard to homelessness, I can give an example from Meath County Council. The primary cause of people seeking emergency accommodation in Meath is marital breakdown. Straightaway, there is a need to move from one family home to two properties. However, I am not aware of anything happening in that space in terms of mediation, support and so on.

With regard to infrastructure, the town centre first approach has been ignored by many local authorities. This needs to be revisited. Regarding commencement notices, there is the issue of the extension of duration after two years. As for the process of flipping, one entity gets planning permission and does not build but sells on, and there is a margin. Those are a few more areas for possible future consideration.

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