Sheila Terry (Fine Gael)

I thank Senator McHugh for sharing his time with me. I welcome these amendments to Part V of the Planning and Development Act. They will make the whole system more flexible. The idea is to provide housing for those who are in need of it. Everyone here comes from areas where there are large numbers of people on the waiting lists. In the Blanchardstown area alone, there are over 1,000 people on the housing list.

My experience is somewhat different from that of other speakers. In Fingal County Council, Part V has worked very well. I rang our housing section before coming here and discovered we have already delivered 42 units, in which people are now living. Eighty-three people will be moving into them in the coming weeks. We have agreements with developers to deliver approximately 1,000 further units, which is occurring under Part V of the existing agreement.

I cannot understand why the system works so well in Fingal and not elsewhere. It may be because of our management, which has insisted on such numbers being provided by the developers. We have no problem with the developers either. They are very willing to be part of the process and to help deliver houses either to people who want to purchase under the shared ownership scheme or to those who require social housing.