Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his briefing. I assure him first of all that Fianna Fáil will support the Bill and its passage through the Oireachtas at great speed. We have all, at different points throughout the past year, made clear that the idea of putting through all Stages of any Bill is not a good precedent. It is not a good idea to ram legislation through, but we understand the necessity for it in this particular situation. That said, it is hard to believe we are in a situation where this Bill has to come to us at all. It seems we are having to resolve matters arising from a technical drafting error that should have been spotted when the legislation was being passed before Christmas. Without this provision to extend, as the Minister of State has said, there are between 50 and 100 projects - we seem to have a figure of around 70 - of more than 20 units which had been granted permission in advance of 2009 which, if this were not passed now, would have to stop construction, the sites would have to be left, and people would have to be laid off, all of which would further reduce the very limited supply of housing of all types, as the Minister of State outlined. It is a time when we need houses more than ever and we have a situation where it seems we have to rush this through because of something that was not spotted earlier. It could be argued that the amount of time we spend discussing judicial appointments or other things is the reason we do not get adequate time to deal with this kind of thing, and we cannot lay the blame for that with a Fine Gael Minister. It is important this is done and that we do it as expeditiously and as quickly as possible because we do not want to see a reduction in supply or people being laid off when we need construction workers more than ever.

I would like to hear from the Minister of State, or from his officials through him, what happened with the various Acts around Christmas and why we have to rush this through now. What happened to the planning Bill around Christmas when we sat until 22 or 23 December to deal with it and which we supported? Why did a situation like this arise? I support the concept that it is a use it or lose it provision. We understand the economic situation, but we do not want people to hoard planning permission and we do not want people to think that they can get planning permission in a particular period and then keep sitting on it as house prices go up. It is equally important that, where there are extensions of planning permissions and a county development plan changes and introduces better or improved standards, people should not be able to renew their planning permission. I know that was not the case in the past and that if the development plan changed standards, people would often be refused the permission to build things that had been permitted under an old development plan but were no longer allowed under the new development plan.

At this stage, Rebuilding Ireland is almost a year old. The progress has been relatively limited. We can talk about reports and what is in the pipeline, and while I know houses cannot be built overnight, we are nonetheless a long way from what was forecast and projected a year ago. I would like to hear from the Minister of State what progress he is making or he feels can be made in the short and medium term. Figures came out yesterday that showed the most expensive areas to buy houses. Two of the top five in the country are in my former electoral area of Stillorgan, Foxrock and Mount Merrion. There are huge prices for houses that are not necessarily enormous. It is the issue of supply versus demand. A relatively tiny number of houses are available with many people chasing them, as a result of which the house prices go up, leaving people who are not necessarily wealthy with very large mortgages and a very long time to service them. We now have figures for rents that are higher than they ever were. They are higher than they were in the peak of the boom in 2008, with the average rent for a one-bed place in Dublin now costing 69% of average monthly earnings. These are all issues that need to be addressed. We are facilitating the Minister of State's Bill, but there is much more work to be done. I would appreciate the Minister of State's response about how it happened that we are having to pass this legislation quickly, why it happened, and an assurance that this kind of behaviour of rushing things through will not happen again.