Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)

On the spending reviews that have been stopped, we need to do something to fix that because those reviews are important in terms of value for money. I understand there is work going on, but that the results of that work are not being published to the same level as previously. As a result, we are not seeing the benefit of that analysis publicly.

Of the 90,000 planning permissions that are not being built out, more than 40,000 are in Dublin. The latter mainly relate to apartments. The one thing that has worked in the context of getting movement on apartment planning permissions that have been there for years but that have not been acted upon does not relate to the different tax expenditures. Where that has worked - it can be seen in large-scale developments like Clongriffin, where apartment planning permissions were not getting built out for years - is where the LDA has come in and built out planning permissions quite fast, incidentally. These are developments which have stalled for well over a decade or almost two decades. They are being built out now quite fast by the LDA. We can debate the affordability of those apartments, but they are certainly somewhat affordable. They are below the full market price. That is working. The money that is going into that is working, whereas there is no evidence that any of the money that is going into the various different tax expenditures is delivering. Not only is what the LDA is doing delivering in terms of build-out, but, as I said, there is an affordability element as well. That is worth thinking about. That is why this review is needed urgently, namely within three months. If the Tánaiste was in a position to state that the Department is doing the spending reviews and the proper analysis that it used to do and publishing the results, he would have a case not to accept the amendment. However, that is not happening.

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