Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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10. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the reason he and his colleague, the Minister of State with responsibility for housing and planning, wrote to each chief executive of the four local authorities in County Dublin on 10 June 2015 on the matter of building standards; if he will describe precisely the unreasonable and excessive requirements in the standard of housing or ancillary services to which he referred in the letter; the standards he would deem acceptable; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28763/15]

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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The Minister and the Minister of State wrote to the local authorities in Dublin about building standards. They spoke about unreasonable and excessive requirements. What precisely did they mean by this?

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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The current indications are that to meet rising demand and address recent under-supply, the level of house building in Dublin needs to at least double from the 3,000 or so new homes that were built in 2014. Consequently, the Minister and I wrote to the chief executives of each of the four Dublin local authorities regarding the preparation and finalisation of the new development plans for their areas. The letter requested the local authorities to focus on practical measures for inclusion in the development plans to boost housing supply and ensure good quality housing in suitable locations is available at prices that people can afford and that investors will find attractive to develop for the rental market.

Current indications are that viability of new housing construction in Dublin, although improving, remains in a very fragile condition. Therefore, it is essential that the development plan places the viability of development and early delivery as a high priority. Requiring particular or proprietary forms of housing construction or large setback distances of existing housing from new apartments will increase development costs and result in higher house prices and rents.

The purpose of the letter is not to compromise quality or standards. Indeed, it should be clearly understood and I want to emphasise that the building standards in this country respect and meet all relevant EU requirements. The intent of our letter is to encourage the local authorities concerned to ensure the development plan process supports the viability of new development through rigorous economic and regulatory impact assessment of any new or existing development plan standards that are above relevant national minimum requirements.

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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We have had many examples of bad decisions being made during a crisis, which is why I asked the question. It is fine as long as the standards end up being good standards and we do not end up paying money in the future for cutting back on something on which we should not have cut back. Insulation standards are an example. We do not want to end up with a situation where we have to retrofit storage in apartments. It can be very offputting and expensive for families. Families frequently have to sell baby stuff and then buy it again when a new baby arrives because there is no place to store things. Setback distances can be really important if buildings are higher so that one does not lose light, which can be very unattractive and unhealthy for people. I am looking to explore this aspect.

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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I understand where the Deputy is coming from and I want to reassure her that this is not about reducing standards. We already have minimum standards in this country and we comply with EU requirements. This is about ensuring we have development that is sustainable and affordable and that the construction of housing from the concept to design to planning to construction is affordable. Otherwise, we will price ourselves out of the market. I recognise that we need good quality development plans that are sustainable and the Deputy is right to raise this issue in the House.

She asked what unreasonable and excessive requirements we were referring to. One area that has been highlighted to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council was the inclusion of the passive housing standard as a minimum energy performance requirement. I have no issue with housing construction standards being as high and efficient as possible and believe they should be encouraged, but we need to careful that we are not overly prescriptive or restrictive in our county and city development plans. It is important that issues such as the location of apartments are more appropriately considered in the individual planning application. There is nothing stopping local authorities from applying conditions rather than having overall restrictive or prescriptive conditions in a county or city development plan. In other words, one has belts and braces when one does not need them because they will add to cost and restrict housing output, which is not something any of us wants to see.

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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Sometimes, if one does not put standards in place, one gets the lowest possible standards with the applications. This is a counter-argument to not setting that out. We should seek not to have to end up doing or reversing things in the future. Has the Government looked at other elements of the cost of building other than the standards? I presume it has. What evidence does the Minister of State have that what is happening in these particular local authorities is driving those costs up?

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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It is not the Minister or I who are saying this. We have utilised expertise in the Housing Agency, which has carried out a deep analysis of the cost of delivering on housing units. We have addressed other areas that have added to cost. We debated some of those in the House last week during the debate on the Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill. Overheads like development contributions under Part V were very high in the past. We are giving local authorities flexibility to reduce these. This is just one way in which we are trying to reduce costs.

I reassure the Deputy that we are not trying to undermine what are already quality standards in building construction in this country. What we are warning against is having standards that are over and above what is in place, that may not be necessary and that may restrict any application that comes before a local authority. We want to ensure we boost housing construction and increase the output. If we restrict that in any way, we will all have a right to complain. It is important that our Department's efforts to tackle any impediments or barriers are addressed. We are writing in good faith to those local authorities to ask them to take that on board.