James Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy English, to the House. I thank him for his address which outlines clearly a major amount of progress and welcome the fact that there is a full acknowledgement that there is a long way to go to correct a situation that evolved over the past number of decades stemming mainly from the financial crisis and our inability to fund housing in the way that we would have liked. As the Leader pointed out, there was a Troika coming into this country every three months wanting a report and not prepared to write a cheque for the next three months to keep the country going if it did not like what it saw.

I acknowledge the work that has been done. I particularly welcome the affordable housing initiative. I welcome the affordable mortgage initiative and I welcome the affordable rental initiative. All these three initiatives will go towards helping ease the problem. Clearly, there is much more to be done.

My main purpose today is to try to ensure that the new national planning framework document, which is only in draft form and will be the subject of much more consultation, does not unintentionally make matters worse rather than better. I want to specify a couple of issues that concern me, and, indeed, concern the planners in Fingal.

The object of the plan is something I agree with entirely, that we should have a balancing of the west coast and the east coast, try to revitalise rural Ireland, and try to bring more population and jobs to the major urban areas outside Dublin by which I mean Limerick, Cork, Galway, Waterford and towns such as Sligo in the north west. However, I am concerned specifically about the fact that we have a determination that 50% of housing in the Dublin area should be in Dublin city and suburbs. This excludes Fingal. It excludes Swords. The population of Swords, when one includes Kinsealy, is 45,000. It is a considerably larger town than Drogheda, which seeks city status. It is also where we have the youngest population in the country, where many jobs are being created, and we want these young people to be able to have their families and live in Fingal.

In Dublin city itself, a third of the houses must be built on brownfield sites. This will drive up the value of these sites and drive up the cost of housing if we are not careful.

In relation to Fingal, having been excluded from 50% of the possible houses to be built, a further 30% have to be on brownfield sites. That means a ratio of brownfield site houses to greenfield site houses of 1:2. We have thousands of acres zoned in Fingal, with plans for 4,000 houses in the Donabate area alone. There are more planned in Balbriggan, and Swords, as I say, has lots of land with planning permission available. We also have plans for the metro, which may be slightly longer term. We have plans for the electrification of the northern line, which is something that could and I hope will happen quickly. With the infrastructure, both in place and planned, it does not make sense to have people having to leave Fingal. Meaning no disrespect to the Minister of State, some of the planners in Fingal have pointed out that many people in Fingal would have to move to Navan but, although Navan is a fine place, they wish to stay within Fingal. In addition, we had great news today that the Bank of America is coming to Dublin, and we heard its concerns around housing and schools. Of course, thanks to the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Bruton, we have plenty of schools being built in Fingal and other areas. I would hope there will be further consultation.

I am looking forward to direct consultation with the Minister's team to address these issues. They are of serious concern. What I am concerned about is the unintended consequences that might result from the draft I have seen. I hope we will have plenty of time to address this issue and modify the draft.I congratulate the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Murphy, for the energy and effort they have put into this and for the many initiatives the Minister of State pointed out in his speeches recently and today. I wish him well. I know that he and his ministerial colleague are not under any illusion but that this is a very serious problem for Ireland and a serious challenge. I commend them for the way they are applying themselves to it.