Dominic Hannigan (Labour)

That intervention was made on the Minister's time, not mine.

The guidelines also call for inclusivity of design so that we do not have community facilities just for teenagers but also for active retirement groups. We are all aware of how difficult it is for community groups to gain access to facilities. Last Friday, I met a youth officer in Bettystown, which has new premises for a Youthreach centre. The premises are not permanent and the officer is worried about whether they will be able to provide services after the current lease expires. Perhaps the Minister could include in the guidelines stipulations about the provision of community space, for example, for every 100 houses the developer must provide a multi-purpose community centre for youth, adults and active retirement groups. For developments of more than 100 houses, a playground or space for a playing area should be provided, along with Garda or health centres if required. Perhaps post boxes should be also a requirement for developments of more than 100 houses. I have been in estates of more than 300 houses, where there are no playgrounds, where there are no places for bored teenagers to hang out and where one must travel five miles by car to post a letter.

The document refers to an assessment for education if there are more than 200 houses and that, if there are more than 800 houses, there should be phasing on the basis of educational places. Just yesterday, An Bord Pleanála granted planning permission for 700 houses in Donacarney, East Meath, with no reference to the dearth of school places. Some 1,000 children are coming on stream and the local authority did not link it to any educational provision. In this regard, it is welcome to see planning guidelines.

It is right that we should concentrate density at places where there is high public transport provision. It should not, however, be a case of ticking the box if there is public transport. The important issue is whether there is capacity on the public transport system to deal with the additional people. That is not the case at present. I ask the Minister to consider whether assessment of public transport capacity would be a more useful measure in judging whether to grant permission to a development.

I agree with much of what is in the housing site guidelines. I refer to housing estate layout. The guidelines refer to moving away from traffic calming measures and introducing speed design in estates. I am sure the Minister is familiar with the Netherlands, and its system of woonerf — living street — along which, by legislation, drivers cannot exceed the walking pace of people within the estate. It reduces the number of accidents in estates and makes the estates a nicer place to live. There are 9,000 woonerven in the Netherlands and Germany has something similar, limiting the speed of cars within estates to 7 km/h. I ask the Minister to consider introducing such legislation here.

Will the Minister address the issue of retrospectivity. In my estate of Drogheda, designed ten years ago and built five years ago, there are no traffic calming measures. Trying to introduce traffic calming measures after development is very difficult. I ask the Minister to consider incentivising local authorities or developers, where the estate has not been taken into charge by the local authority, to provide traffic calming measures on estates that have already been built.

I agree with the guidelines in respect of adaptability of design and maximising the use of solar power. I ask the Minister to consider guidelines for geothermal power and re-using groundwater and rainwater to maximise their use within new developments.

Regarding privacy and amenity, I suggest the laws be tightened in respect of sound insulation. One could be sitting in a house in some estates and believe one is listening to "Life on Earth" by David Attenborough because of what is going on next door and the thickness of the walls. The legislation is not strong enough on this point. It is difficult to retrofit houses with sound insulation. I suggest the way around this is to increase penalties, something that the Minister is considering in building regulations but perhaps he can make a contribution on this point.

The guidelines call for more use of communal parking. The only issue is the use of these by trucks or abandoned cars. The Minister should tighten the law on parking trucks and abandoned cars, and car sales. At present, the council advises contacting the Garda Síochána and the Garda Síochána sends one back to the council, while the developer does not want to know about it. Can we examine having one person or centre responsible for parking trucks on estates? While it might sound like a minor issue it is a major issue in new estates. My final point relates to detailed design of open space. The guidelines call for landscaping before estates are occupied. All too often this does not happen and we have seen instances where developers come back and ask to build further houses in the open space area. Will the Minister consider guidelines that prevent applications for further housing on open spaces identified on the planning application?

There has been a slowdown in the residential market recently but it is cyclical, as we all accept, and the Minister has stated that we can expect another 700,000 houses to be built before 2020. These guidelines are a positive development, will help to ensure homes are built well, improve our towns and cities and make for more comfortable living. I compliment the Minister on his initiative and ask him to consider my suggestions.