Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agat, a iar-Chathaoirligh. I am grateful to the Minister for coming into the House yet again with another piece of legislation to address the housing crisis.The Minister has said right from the start that his priority, and that of the Government, is to provide homes for people. That means using all the resources of the State in whatever way we can to ensure those homes are built, and if legislative change is required, then that will happen. The Minister is in the Chamber almost every week - he is the Minister who is probably here more than anyone else - introducing legislative changes, with more to come. In fact, it is great to see Senator Moynihan cautiously welcoming some of the legislation. It is important we see that engagement by the Opposition. I am quite certain that, in due course, even Sinn Féin, rather than trotting out the standard "missed opportunity" line - I will wait to see if Senator Warfield uses that line - it may even come up with some constructive lines.

I have huge respect for my colleague, Senator Cummins, and his passion for housing, but this is where there is a very key political difference between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. The Minister will know that our party strongly opposed SHDs for quite a number of reasons. He gave a very clear commitment during our discussions before going into government that, as part of the programme for Government, we would get rid of SHDs and empower local government. It is something he has done. It is important that in circumstances where we are empowering local government, and as the Minister said, this legislation gives control back to local councillors, that we give power to councillors, especially to those who want to see housing built in their communities and who do not spend the whole time objecting to it.

The introduction of strategic housing developments in 2016 was a very poor decision. I happened to come across a very prescient letter published in The Irish Timesin July 2016, which outlined a number of the problems. It stated that "There is no evidence that local authorities are delaying the granting of planning permission for large estates when those estates are in line with local area plans." It goes on:

In the supply of public housing, the major delays are with the Department of Planning and Housing, which continues to delay releasing funds to local authorities to build, renovate or compulsorily purchase housing.

[...]

Local area plans and county development plans are agreed after extensive processes of consultation with local communities and with government agencies and allow for democratic input into what should be built in our communities, combined with good planning advice.

The letter goes on to ask:

...what additional resources are proposed for An Bord Pleanála if ... [this went ahead]. What guarantees are there that this will not result in significant delays to planning appeals, which will surely defeat ... [this] exercise?

Finally, this is yet another example of removing local authority powers.

That 2016 letter was written by a Councillor Malcolm Byrne, as I was at the time. It reflected a very strong view held by Fianna Fáil councillors and, I know, by the Minister. The evidence is that it is very much the case, unfortunately, that much of what I predicted at the time came true.

I recall when the former Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Damien English, came to Wexford County Council to talk about this, there was no evidence basis for the decision to introduce SHDs. What we saw was a backlog at An Bord Pleanála and a dramatic increase in the number of judicial reviews. In 2020, An Bord Pleanála had to defend 83 legal cases at a cost of €8.2 million, 20% of which related to SHDs. In many ways, the only ones who benefited from SHDs were planning lawyers.

I am very happy the Minister committed to address this issue and to give powers back to local government. Senators Moynihan and Cummins were correct in stating that it is now key that this frees up resources in An Bord Pleanála. I particularly welcome the provisions in this legislation around mandatory decision timelines. This is a big concern to the construction sector but it is also an issue raised by IDA Ireland. This is not about trying to influence the decision process one way or another but rather giving people reasonable timelines. It is a crazy situation that no real timeline is clearly set out for somebody who applies for a major housing development or a critical piece of infrastructure. That is important. An Bord Pleanála needs to realise that this is coming down the tracks and it has to get with it. I echo the point about the need for extra planners at local government level. I know the Minister is putting housing delivery programme teams in place in every local authority but, on the other side, we need to ensure there are a sufficient number of additional planners.

The Minister knows that this legislation has been strongly welcomed in Fianna Fáil but I encourage him to go even further. We are re-empowering local authorities. This is also being done by making sure the budgets are available for them. I ask that as much of the data as possible are published and made publicly available in addition to giving councillors, through the housing strategic policy committees, SPCs, far greater oversight of the plans to ensure housing is delivered in our community, which will equally ensure councillors will be able to hold planners in the housing delivery teams to account.

What we all want to achieve is the building of more homes in our community. This Bill is one further step as part of the raft of legislation. It is difficult to keep up with the amount of legislation the Minister has been introducing, but this is a very important step forward. Perhaps, in his response, he will indicate how long a developer, who is looking to develop an estate of, for instance, 100 houses, will expect to wait in normal circumstances, and all things being equal, as a result of the legislative changes to ensure we get houses built in our communities.