Seanad debates

Wednesday, 23 November 2016

Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Bill 2016: Committee Stage (Resumed)

 

10:30 am

Photo of Colette KelleherColette Kelleher (Independent) | Oireachtas source

At the end of this process we will need a sufficiency of housing stock, both social and otherwise, for everyone, including people with disabilities and older people. We need to ensure we do not end up with stocks of houses that are not suitable. In my neck of the woods, there is housing in the old Our Lady of Lourdes Park in which nobody will live because a sufficiency of thought was not put into people living in that area. There were no bus routes provided, for example.

In fast-tracking there is a danger we will create housing but not housing that will last into the future. I gave the example of Denmark, where thoughtful planning leaves a stock of housing for people who become older, more infirm and more immobile and for people with existing disabilities. An Bord Pleanála may not have the same focus on that as a local authority. There is an elderly population in Raheny because that is how the suburb developed. In other parts of Dublin, there are younger populations. We need to be sensitive to those demographic profiles so that we have a housing stock that lasts into the future rather than fixes a problem for today.

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