Seanad debates
Tuesday, 10 December 2002
Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill, 2002: Second Stage.
Senator Ulick Burke made a very important point on this Bill. He said the restrictions were put in place to restrict development. That is what Part V of the original Bill did. It restricted it because builders did not build for the reasons I have outlined. They did not build when we had a boom. Now that the boom is over and the Government has seen the daylight and has lifted the restrictions or tried to ease them, the Government has not the money to provide the local authority housing. We have seen from the recently published Estimates that there will be massive cutbacks in all sectors. I would like to hear the Minister say that, even if the builders go ahead and provide the 20% of land for social housing, there will be no cutback in respect of the building of local authority housing.
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