Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)

I support the amendment tabled by my colleague Deputy Ó Broin. When I read what the IPI said, I thought it was very stark. In its usual mild-mannered way the IPI set out clearly why as professional planners they believe these changes will not work. We will end up with monolithic blocks like we had in the past and that we said we would not build anymore. These are lower quality solutions. They are driven by this need for short-term expediency. It does not follow the work the Department has been doing for the past couple of years on trying to build sustainable, long-term communities and long-term apartment living. These apartments are not going to be long-term homes for people. It will make apartment living much more transient. It will push people further out of our urban core.

The unintended consequences of these amendments are concerning. With the proposed planning law changes whereby there will be a fast-track process, adding these new guidelines to already-approved units could end up in court. These amendments to allow developers who have already secured permission to build more and smaller apartments in the same space without submitting a fresh planning application means there will be more delays because developers will have to resubmit planning applications. There is also a challenge that this could all get challenged in the High Court. It could lead to JRs. I am also concerned that parts of this could be unconstitutional due to a lack of public consultation on what could be a significant change to a developer's building plan. Any permitted modification decision could then be challenged in the High Court by way of judicial review. The gains, if they could be described as that, are also modest at best. They do nothing to deal with the core issue, which is the cost of land and land speculation.

There might be some changes in headline viability but they will be undermined by an increased number of judicial reviews and will also be undermined by the fact that we are going to have more delays.

I am also concerned about the provision of community or cultural space, particularly in respect of the 5% provision that was brought in as part of Dublin City Council's 2022 to 2028 development plan. This was a hard-won provision to deliver more space for artists and community groups. It was also intended to help to build sustainable communities. I find it ironic that just as the local democracy task force is getting under way this week, the Minister is running roughshod over local authorities here. Disrespect was shown to Dublin City Council, as a local authority, in this regard. It had no warning of these new guidelines. It was not consulted and had no opportunity to give any input. I do not think that is acceptable.

It is clear from talking to colleagues on Dublin City Council that they feel the biggest objector to this community provision has all along been the Land Development Agency, LDA. It has had some success with to the community provision. Some developers have got on with it. They have factored community and cultural spaces into their developments. They have partnered with local arts organisations and community groups to make this work. It says a lot about the LDA, its role and the policy direction given to it if it is the main voice looking to remove this provision for community space. The LDA lobbied hard for these apartment design changes because allowing it to cram further small units into the existing building that will be built will enable it, at least on paper, to improve its performance.

The loss of size and mix is going to lead to mono-tenure towns and cities. We are going to have tiny apartments and people paying extremely high rents. It will not be sustainable or long term.

Going back to what I said at the beginning, the report presented to us at the briefing the other day was a summary of the LDA's research. We need to see the LDA's research because we need to be clear as to exactly what the cost savings are. I do not think the cost savings will be what were presented in the media and the press release from the Minister's Department last week. The savings will be nowhere near those figures. They will probably be one fifth of the headline figure that was quoted.

That these revised guidelines are being presented as a fait accompliis incredibly regrettable. My colleague Deputy Ó Broin spoke about the Aarhus Convention and our need to comply with our obligations under it. In the way the Minister is doing this, we are going to run into trouble on those grounds.

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