Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I regret that the Government is not accepting any version of the amendments. I know that there are 28,000 planning permissions outstanding in the Dublin area. That is why we spoke about the local authority area alone. While I appreciate that the Minister of State and the Department took on board the constructive proposals we offered on Committee Stage in order to try to future-proof the Bill, unfortunately, there is no measure to address the 28,000 planning permissions outstanding which are not being moved forward. I hope the Government will come forward with proposals to tackle the issue. When we talk about generating activity, we should not generate speculation or planning permissions only. The activity we all want to generate is building. This is a key point of leverage. The Department is delivering something to developers and the construction industry. I urge the Government to use this point of leverage to bundle and ensure that if developers want to build on new, highly desirable sites, they will also have to move forward. We have set a very reasonable bar in that regard. Given that we do not have extensive time available, I will press only one of the amendments, amendment No. 1, on which I will seek a division, given that an opportunity has been missed.

The Minister of State asked how we would know where developers' other sites were. That is a flaw in itself. In this new planning permission regime it would be very reasonable for the Minister to require those applying for fast-tracked planning permission to provide information on where they had outstanding large-scale developments. I imagine it would even be necessary to ensure they had a track record in delivering and completing developments, an issue raised on Committee Stage. I urge the Minister of State to come up with proposals not to miss the opportunity to deal with the 28,000 empty spaces in Dublin city alone which should have houses and families in them. If he chooses not to use the tools we have provided, I urge him to develop his own.