Seanad debates

Friday, 28 May 2021

Affordable Housing Bill 2021: Committee Stage

 

9:30 am

Photo of Pat CaseyPat Casey (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I support the amendment. The thrust of what everybody has said so far is right. It is fine for us to talk about everything in this House but when we pass this legislation, it will be about delivery. To get real and honest delivery, we need to set ourselves targets. One way we can deliver housing is through local authorities because, to a certain extent, as public representatives, we control that space. We are a little removed from the Land Development Agency and do not have the same influence over it. The same applies to approved housing bodies. The only entities we can influence to drive the delivery of affordable homes are local authorities. That is why I have so much faith in the scheme before us. We can talk all we like but it is all about the delivery of homes, at the end of the day. Nothing else matters.

Senator Boyhan brought up a valid point, although it is taking us slightly off the topic of this amendment, about the strategy of the national planning framework, NPF, regional plans, county development plans and the role of the office of the planning regulator. The planning framework will cause problems in the delivery of homes down the line. Let us call a spade a spade. I fully agree with the core principles of the national planning framework but those principles are not aligned with the infrastructure to deliver on them. When the strategy is then forced onto a regional plan and a county development plan, we are having major problems. Towns with tier 1 infrastructures are at levels two and three in my county. One such town has invested €100 million in infrastructure and has the potential to grow to a population of 30,000. That town has been told it can build 300 houses over the next ten years. In other places with tier 2 infrastructure that need the M11 and N11 upgraded, which will take 15 years, 50% of our population growth has to take place. You could not write it. The Minister is about to announce investment of €100 million in a waste water treatment plant for Arklow, a town that will be allowed to build 270 houses over the next ten years to accommodate a potential population growth of 30,000 people. We are in the middle of a housing crisis.

The national planning framework, regional plans and county development plans give three options. Areas can phase their zoning, change their zoning or dezone. Each of our local authorities has taken the easy option and has dezoned land.

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