Dáil debates

Thursday, 11 May 2023

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions

Housing Provision

9:50 am

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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8. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he has read the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service, IGEES, housing analytical notes published on 5 December 2022, particularly the Planning Permissions and Housing Supply analytical note; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22159/23]

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The Department's IGEES unit produced a report on planning permissions and housing supply at the end of last year. The evidence it provides directly counters the Government's narrative about planning. The Government says again and again the problem is too many planning objections and that is why we cannot ramp up housing supply. The Department has produced a document that says that is absolutely not the case and identifies land banking, speculation and viability issues as the problem. Has the Minister of State any comment on that? Has he relayed these findings to his colleagues in Government?

Photo of Patrick O'DonovanPatrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this important question. Housing policy is written for the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage and his Department. IGEES staff in the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform carry out research in a broad range of areas affecting expenditure. While this informs the evidence base provided by officials in ministerial briefings, housing policy is developed and implemented by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

The IGEES is an integrated, cross-Government service that seeks to enhance the role of analysis and evidence in public policymaking. The two housing analytical notes published last December are independent pieces of research conducted by IGEES staff in the Department. IGEES staff in the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform regularly undertake research and produce papers and analytical notes to contribute to the evidence base. These are used in policy discussions, dialogue with other Departments and to support informed policymaking.

The Planning Permissions and Housing Supply analytical note seeks to broaden the evidence base underpinning the planning process by examining refusal rates, decision timing and planning appeals using available data. It also discusses the relationship between planning permissions and recent trends in housing supply more broadly by drawing on the available data, as well as the existing research and literature on this topic. A key finding from this research highlights the need for improved quality of planning data and for further research to be conducted to provide clear insights on the planning process and impacts on commencements and delivery.

The second housing analytical note, Review of the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan, 2018-2021, examines the activity and take-up of the Rebuilding Ireland home loan, which has now been replaced by the local authority home loan. The findings highlighted the strong demand for the scheme and also demonstrated the important role it has played in supporting 2,629 home purchases for lower-income earners between February 2018 and December 2021. A further 5,442 received approval in principle.

All the work carried out by IGEES within the Department forms the evidence base officials use to inform the Minister prior to any meetings he attends, such as Cabinet committee meetings, and policy discussions he engages in. Research and findings such as those seen in the two housing analytical notes form part of the briefings he has received to date on housing-related matters.

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The Minister of State has not answered the question. Does the Minister pass on the information his Department gathers to the people who develop housing policy? The Minister of State gave an interesting summary of the document, which I am beginning to suspect he has not read. The Minister of State said the document says we need more documents with more data. That is not what it says. It mentions that and says more study would be useful, but what the document actually says is 85% of all planning applications are granted. In rural Ireland the proportion granted is more like 90% to 95%, but almost everywhere it is over 70% and is usually 80%. The note says there are loads of planning permissions given for apartments and houses, but they are not commenced. The document's authors say they are not exactly sure why that is, though it is definitely not to do with planning objections. They say it is probably to do with land banking, speculation and viability issues.

Photo of Patrick O'DonovanPatrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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Whatever about me reading it, I do not know whether the Deputy listened to me. I will read it out again. The IGEES is an integrated, cross-Government service that seeks to enhance the role of analysis and evidence in public policymaking. It is a cross-Government service, which means there is more than one Department involved in it. I also said it informs the Minister's engagements and meeting, including Cabinet meetings.

On what the Deputy said about planning permissions, it is important to point out the report states:

Counties in the [greater Dublin area] GDA and those containing large urban centres, tended to have higher refusal rates. Refusal rates across [local authorities] LAs ranged from 37% in Kildare to 4% in Tipperary.

A 37% rate is a large amount of refusals in the context of the total number of housing units needed. Some people in this House make a virtue of objecting to planning permissions and they need to take a look at themselves and maybe at their political ideologies if they are saying a person cannot build a private house on private land and make profit. I have been at the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform for seven years in three different roles and have been here for all the oral questions. The mantra does not change from the Deputy's side and it indicates his philosophical and ideological opposition to people building their own houses.

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Again, the Minister of State really should read the report, because it says the grant rate for single dwellings is much higher and it is especially so in rural Ireland. It is almost over 90%. Thus, the mantra that planning objectors are slowing down applications for single dwellings in rural Ireland is just not true. Even in areas with the highest refusal rates the grant rate is 70% and usually 80%. The researchers then ask how there is planning permission for 42,000 apartments in Dublin, with that figure constantly rising, but there are only about 4,000 to 5,000 being built. The researchers say it is likely because people are getting planning permission to increase the value of their assets and speculating on the value of those assets and that they are banking land. The Government does nothing about that but its members keep on jumping up and down about planning.

10:00 am

Photo of Patrick O'DonovanPatrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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As someone who represents one of those rural counties the Deputy seems to have such a knowledge of-----

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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It is in your report.

Photo of Patrick O'DonovanPatrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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The number of houses that are granted planning permission on a once-off basis is tiny, relative to what is needed. The Leas-Cheann Comhairle and Deputy Conway-Walsh will know what I am talking about here. The number of one-off houses in rural areas, compared with schemes of houses that are built, is minuscule. Naturally enough, the refusal rate will be smaller but the overall refusal rate for planning permission stands at 15%. In the context of apartments, which the Deputy mentioned, the number of completed apartments has grown from 2,258 in 2018 to more than 5,000 in 2021 and the other data will be available for 2022 shortly. Progress is being made in this area. I know the Deputy has an ideological opposition to what we are trying to do. He annunciates it every time, it never changes and I appreciate that.