Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will share my time with Senator Ward. The Minister of State is very welcome to the House. I am very supportive of this Bill, which puts the LDA on a statutory footing. It is good news, especially for Dublin. There are two principles that are central to tackling the housing crisis, and we are working on them. These are accessibility, whether through affordability measures or social support, and stock and supply. We will not have a healthy housing system without both. They are inextricably linked. The Land Development Agency Bill 2021 and the Affordable Housing Bill 2021 will provide a significant framework and step change. The Land Development Agency is about scale and supply and unlocking State land to build affordable homes and sustainable communities. It is an agency which will develop significant housing developments on lands owned by the State. Increasing the supply of homes will have a knock-on effect on affordability and increasing the supply of sites will reduce the cost of housing.

There are two stories in housing. There is one where councillors continuously vote against housing projects based on catchy sound bites masquerading as ideology and another where bids to build 600 social and affordable homes in Shankill are being sought by the LDA in partnership with the local authority.Some 200 of these homes are to be social housing, 91 are to be sold to low and middle-income workers under the forthcoming affordability scheme and 206 are to be cost-rental units. This is part of a master plan which includes a gym, a crèche, a space for co-working, cafes and shops. We need more of this. It is really reassuring to hear that this kind of project is going to be scaled up. It is not about building disaffection but about building homes.

I completely agree that the LDA has to work alongside and complement local authorities and local authority members. Nobody knows their area better than councillors. It would be welcome to allow them as much input as they can give. I believe in the importance of local county development plans, which are crafted by and consented to by local authorities, and that we should learn from the mistakes made in respect of strategic housing developments, which circumvented those plans. I welcome the Minister of State's reassurances with regard to section 183 to the effect that existing zoning will be respected. With regard to flexibility, it is great news that while developments in Dublin will be 100% social and affordable housing, including the 20% under Part V, the model in general requires a minimum of 50% plus 20%. We need fewer sound bites and more solutions.