Grace O'Sullivan (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I wish to speak on amendment No. 1, which is my amendment. I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. When I look at the various pillars of Rebuilding Ireland I believe there is a lot of overlap.The need for local authorities to provide social housing has been discussed. Although the Minister of State has outlined the number of units that have been constructed and the commendable progress that is being made, that is, unfortunately, not evident to those affected. The level of homelessness is rising.

I propose that a new section 12 be added to the Bill to strengthen it and to recognise that there is a sense that the legislation is being rushed through the Seanad. Other Members and I want to do our jobs, strengthen the Bill and recognise some of its weaknesses. My amendment aims to ensure that any planning permissions extended will be in keeping with current environmental and building standards and in compliance with the most recent planning and development regulations. As other Senators have said, things have changed in recent years and I am, therefore, bringing forward this amendment. Permissions can be extended under the proposed Bill. Conditions could be out of date as it includes permissions which have run out of time, been extended, run out of that extended period and lapsed.

Members know that fire regulations need updating. One does not build one's way out of a housing crisis by constructing substandard developments and giving a windfall cost benefit to developers to develop at old standards and sell at today's prices. My party colleague, Deputy Catherine Martin, and academic, Ms Deirdre Ní Fhloinn, who wrote our motion on building standards which passed in the Dáil, have recently raised the issue of current building standards being totally unsuitable.

The Bill does not give a definition of "substantial works". The Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, last week said that any further extensions of planning permission must be for developments that are beyond the point of no return. On 13 July, Mr. Brendan McDonagh, the chief executive of NAMA, told the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach that, since its inception, NAMA has sold vacant land on which 50,000 houses could have been built. To that date, 3,700 had been built or were under construction. He said that there is little disincentive to the hoarding of any site for as long as the owner expects house prices to rise. Allowing for an open definition of "substantial works" could lead to abuse of the procedure and further land hoarding, which has been described by many NGOs, academics and even the head of NAMA as a contributor to the current housing crisis.