Seanad debates

Friday, 17 July 2015

Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill 2015: Committee and Remaining Stages

 

10:30 am

Photo of Paudie CoffeyPaudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Senator has made broad ranging points in terms of the wider housing debate. I agree with him on some of them but disagree with him on many others. We are coming from slightly different perspectives and yet we are still dealing with the same problem and issues.

It is reasonable in any society for people to have the expectation of owning their own homes. If people have that legitimate expectation, we need to have a supply of reasonable, sustainable and affordable housing units. Unfortunately, we do not have that at this particular time because of the economic circumstances and the crash. This Bill is trying to incentivise and stimulate development in core areas in our towns and cities. It is adopting a carrot-and-stick approach to help that process along. The carrot is reduced overheads for development and the Part V change is one of those reductions. The other is the reduction in planning permission development charges. The stick element of the Bill is the vacant site levy, which is just one aspect of how we are addressing the housing challenge.

Sinn Féin's amendment, if accepted, would eliminate the Part V contribution mechanism. I pointed this out to Deputy Ellis in the Lower House. It is ironic that if the amendment was accepted, the whole Part V mechanism would be entirely removed from the Statute Book. It is, therefore, a mistake to table the amendment in the first place because it is at odds with Sinn Féin's earlier amendment proposing to retain the higher limit of 20%.

Having said that and going back to the wider housing issues, the allocations have already been announced for the shovel-ready projects in local authorities throughout the country. That is the first allocation. Over the coming weeks, both the Minister, Deputy Kelly, and I will be making a second round of local authority allocations. There is also the capital assistance scheme which relates to the approved housing bodies. Much work is in the pipeline and we will start to see these sites and, as a result, more housing units coming on stream. It will never be enough, which is why it is essential we have access to the private housing sector as well. We are, therefore, putting in place flexible options to assist local authorities through the HAP scheme. If we did not have the HAP scheme or if were to eradicate all of the private housing element, as bad as the situation currently is, imagine the serious crisis we would then have. We need an interim measure until we get our social and private housing output up.

I know, as does the Senator, that Sinn Féin councillors on the ground are welcoming some of these housing developments in their communities. I see that in our constituency of Waterford. I welcome that because they are beginning to see those schemes starting to come through but we need to see more of them. That is my objective and I am determined that we will see more of them. Since both the Minister, Deputy Kelly, and I came to office, one of our priorities was to ring-fence substantial funding for housing but it takes time to get that from the concept stage, through the design and planning stages and out the other end to the construction stage. We will see over the coming months a vast improvement in that area.

This amendment would remove the whole Part V arrangement, which is unacceptable and, therefore, I am opposing amendments Nos. 23 and 24.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.