Seanad debates

Friday, 7 May 2021

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business

 

10:30 am

Photo of Tim LombardTim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I concur with my colleague, Deputy Dooley, on the need for a debate with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage on what is an important issue for society, that being, how to ensure we provide enough housing. I spoke about this issue two weeks ago in terms of the cost of building, including materials and labour. In addition to cement and insulation, that the cost of timber has increased by 40% in the past six months and the cost of steel by 48% - the cost of labour has gone that way too - means that houses will become very unaffordable. It is a supply issue. Builders throughout the country cannot get access to cash, so they will not develop sites. That is the unfortunate dilemma. They had been entering into agreements with local authorities or housing agencies to purchase sites. That was the only way they could get their developments off the ground. The knock-on effect was that the number of properties left for first-time buyers was limited. There are so many issues with the housing market that require meaningful debate.

An issue in my part of the world is that stock that was built for residential housing is now being used primarily as Airbnb properties. Their owners will get €1,000 per week for the next 16 weeks, but the properties will be left idle for the rest of the year. There were 300 or 400 such properties on Airbnb's website this morning. That is a deficit in the rental market, which has a major impact on our provision of housing.

The Planning Regulator has an unusual view of one-off housing.One-off housing is an important party of our society. It keeps rural parishes alive. However, the planning regulator has a totally different view of it. We need a meaningful debate on core issues with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, so that we can get some movement on this issue. This is going to be an issue for the next decade if we do not try to sort it out.

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