Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I will try to race through my script. I have a lot to say in the time available to me. I want to mention something else at the end.

When this Bill was first introduced, my party was opposed to its contents, particularly the changes being made to the existing Part V provisions. We were pleasantly surprised when it was decided to provide for a vacant site levy. It appeared on the face of it that the levy was a decent proposal. Unfortunately, our hopes were deflated when we examined the proposal closely. We believe the levy will be damaging to social housing, will undermine councils, perhaps by penalising them for being underfunded, and will encourage the sale of land that could be used for social housing. Sinn Féin believes this is a serious blow to hopes of tackling the social housing crisis, which is the worst aspect of the housing crisis we are currently facing and dealing with. Indeed, it has been reported in the last day or two that 16,500 of the 42,000 people who are in housing need in Dublin are children. Many people are struggling to pay exorbitant private rents. Far too many families have already lost that struggle. I will mention some statistics in this regard. Approximately 1,000 children are sleeping in emergency accommodation every night. Hundreds are sleeping on the streets and many more are in cramped temporary spaces in the homes of friends and family. Almost 100,000 people depend on the State to subsidise their private rent because they cannot hope to afford it on their own incomes. That would not change even if rates decreased considerably.

The new Part V regime will involve the removal of the 10% affordable housing requirement and the reform of the remaining 10% requirement to include leasing. I know the Government claims to have taken away the ability of developers to pay their way out of these requirements. The get-out clause that will remain in the form of leasing will not greatly benefit the council and those in housing need. It is more than likely that in most cases, this will be the result of the new Part V arrangements. We all know that councils are drastically under-funded and will not be able to purchase Part V social housing in the absence of major investment. Their desperation means they will opt for leasing instead. We do not believe a significant number of social housing units will be developed. We believe the vacant site levy will continue the attack on the ability of councils to provide housing. The Government recently amended this Bill to make local authorities liable for the levy. It argued that this measure will spur development. We must remember that councils are struggling to build houses not because they are lazy but because they simply do not have the money to do so. If one speaks to councillors or council executives, they will tell one that no money is available. The swelling housing waiting lists mean they are under increasing pressure to provide housing. We believe this levy will force councils to hand over land, or sell it off, to avoid the levy. At present, there is enough council land in Dublin to build housing for everyone who needs a house. However, not enough money is available for this.I know the Minister refused to accept Opposition amendments to remove liability from the councils and refused to stipulate that the money raised could be used for social housing on council lands despite the intention to charge councils a levy. My colleague Deputy Dessie Ellis tabled amendments in this respect.

Following on from that, I wish to raise an issue which probably deviates from specific content of the Bill but which is relevant to the spirt of it, in that we are discussing regeneration, vacant sites, development and planning authorities. It is an issue that is particularly topical in Cavan and it relates to regeneration. It concerns an out-of-town retail development. We talk about invigorating towns and preventing sites from becoming hotbeds of decay, neglect or anti-social behaviour. We cannot ignore this. The Minister of State stated in his contribution that regeneration expenditure can include projects or works to improve local shopping streets and business areas, and I thought it would be appropriate to raise this issue with him. A large development involving a new Tesco superstore, which has planning permission for 485 car parking spaces, is taking place in Cavan. Tesco is moving its operation from the centre of the town out to a large hill outside the town. It is opening a superstore on the top of the hill. The back of outlet will face the town core and the superstore will have its own private car park. Many people are concerned that this development might kill business in the town centre. When we talk about towns, regeneration and giving powers to planning authorities, we need to ensure that before planning permission is granted and sales proceed, impact assessments are undertaken. That would go a long way towards improving the local shopping streets and business areas that the Minister of State mentioned in his contribution.

It is no secret that in other towns that have experienced that an influx of large out-of-town retailers the final result has been devastation for the original town core and peripheral towns. It has been pointed out to me that local authorities should be compelled to examine factors such as integration, complementary development and long-term symbiosis as part of any plan incorporating megastores or other developments. The idea is not to protect unworthy or unsustainable businesses or business models but to provide for sustainable development and regeneration that has regard to the community, its traditions and a shared vision for the future. These specific arguments and points do not relate to the Bill, but they are to do with urban regeneration, so I thought it would be worth mentioning to the Minister of State during the course of this debate in case I do not have another opportunity to do so. I hope it is an issue that can be considered in future in terms of urban regeneration, particularly in the context of towns outside Dublin.