Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Seanad for really co-operating in trying to facilitate the movement of this Bill quickly through the Houses. I am determined to try to get this legislation finalised and enacted before the end of the year in order that when we start next year, we will have a series of new systems that can deliver more efficiently than current systems.

The focus so far in the discussion has purely been on the changes for the process around making a planning decision for large-scale units. It is one relatively small part of a much bigger plan that is focusing on multiple different areas. The Rebuilding Ireland plan has a specific process around looking at how we finance projects and there is a specific proposal around how we look at infrastructure deficits. There are also specific proposals around how we insist on mixed tenure developments in trying to build much more vibrant and diverse communities. There are strong sections on disability and so many other issues from the many strands of the housing and homelessness challenges we now face.

All we are doing here is recognising that some of the response requires legislative change. Therefore, when people say this is not going to solve the housing crisis, we know that of course it will not. It is not supposed to do it on its own. It is one contributing factor to solving one of the issues, namely, the delays in getting certainty around a planning decision. That is all. I do not want to overblow that as a silver bullet to solve all our problems because it is not. I am sure we will have plenty of more debate in this House on social housing, a rental strategy, the planning system and some of the other issues we are dealing with in this legislation. All this does is prioritise the legislative change that comes out of the strategy that we published and launched last summer that is rolling out in delivery terms. We have already had our first quarter update in terms of meeting the targets we are setting and we are pretty much on schedule for everything.

This is important and I do not pretend it is not. I can give some evidence as the Senators' colleagues in the Dáil asked me about the evidence for introducing this. I asked for and received from An Bord Pleanála the timeline around decision-making for large-scale planning decisions this year. I got it a couple of months ago. There were only 15 decisions by An Bord Pleanála on applications with more than 100 units at that point, although there have been a few more since. That represents the vast majority of applications for more than 100 units. Although it is true there are some examples of large-scale planning applications that do not go to An Bord Pleanála, the vast majority do. The average length of time it took to get a decision from pre-planning consultation to final decision was 78 weeks.

We are talking about how to build enough houses for people. We are looking at what happened last year. There were 12,500 houses completed last year and 6,000 of those were one-off houses in the countryside. Of the other 6,500, a very significant percentage were examples of unfinished housing estates and apartment complexes being completed. We are probably talking about somewhere between 3,000 or 4,000 new houses being built in total in the entire country. At a time when we need to be building approximately 30,000 units, we are building approximately a tenth of that number. That is the extent of the problem we are trying to solve through multiple strands, policy changes, funding proposals, legal changes and so on. If we can bring more certainty to the planning decision in terms of timelines for large developments, it will become easier to finance them. Timelines and uncertainties around planning decisions are a big factor in the financing of projects. This is not a charter for developers or anything, but that is a fact. If somebody is building more than 100 houses, we are talking about multi-million euro financing, and to put that in place, certainty in getting decisions on planning is essential. That is the feedback we are getting.

We want to encourage more ambition for the likes of student accommodation.There are probably 10,000 student accommodation places in the pipeline, either in planning, being prepared for planning or under construction. We probably need 30,000 between now and 2019. How do we get that moving faster? A streamlined timeline for how we get those decisions would help. It is a case of getting some more certainty and urgency into the supply response. That is the context in which I am trying to operate.

Second, how do we ensure we are not undermining the quality of decisions, which is very important for some people here too? In an effort to solve a problem let us not cause another problem by making bad decisions. That is why this legislation is, if anything, protecting zoning for large housing decisions. My understanding, and I will happily stand corrected, is that An Bord Pleanála, if it chooses to, has the power to grant a planning permission for a residential property on land that is not zoned for housing if it has good reason to do that, consistent with national strategy or other factors that it must take into account. In this legislation it is specifically precluded from granting a planning application for a residential development unless the land is zoned for housing. There is no rush job here. This involves putting in place a process that makes the right decisions, gives certainty about zoning but makes sure that we have timelines and statutory pressure on the system to make decisions.

Are we bypassing local democracy? I met representatives from the Association of Local Government, AILG, a couple of hours ago, with Senator Coffey. They were speaking at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government and I wanted to take the opportunity to talk to them and reassure them. I think we did give them some reassurance.