Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Amendment No. 35 is significant and relates to section 94 of the Planning and Development Act 2000. I wish to signal to Senators and, indeed, Deputies that I will table an amendment that integrates for the first time the consideration of homeownership as already set out in the guidelines I brought forward in May 2021 under the Regulation of Commercial Institutional Investment in Housing for certain types of housing development, whereby we banned bulk-buying. Section 94 now sets out provisions related to the preparation and content of housing strategies by each local authority, undertaken as part of the development plan process. While the Act already specifies the tenure type in section 94(4) in respect of social and affordable housing for inclusion in a housing strategy, heretofore there has been no mention of homeownership. This amendment will ensure that the proportion of homeownership is also estimated within a local authority's housing strategy. That is significant. I propose to insert in this Bill the commitment we have made in Housing for All in respect of the owner-occupier guarantee. The amendment relates section 69(3), which specifies what the new housing strategy shall take account of and provides for the insertion of a new paragraph (e), which specifies that the housing strategy shall take account of existing need and the likely future need for housing, especially houses in duplexes, for purchase by intending owner-occupiers.

In section 94, it is proposed to include a new subsection (8) requiring the chief executive of a planning authority to make an estimate of the amount of housing referred to in that subsection required in the area of the development plan during the period of that plan. In section 95(1)(b), it is proposed to provide that a planning authority shall include objectives in the development plan in order to secure the implementation of the housing strategy, particularly any of the matters referred to in section 94(3), including objectives requiring that a specified percentage of land zoned solely for residential use or for a mixture of residential and other uses be made available for the provision of owner-occupier housing, as detailed in section 94(3)(e). The latter two amendments relating to these sections, in section 94(1)(b), are reliant on amendment to section 94(3)(e) being made.

Amendment No. 43 is a consequential alteration to the Long Title of the Bill, which reflects the need to amend Part V of the Planning and Development Act 2000 in order that the need for housing for owner-occupiers can be taken into account for housing strategies. The Government and I, as Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, have consistently said - and it is this Government's priority - that we should level the playing pitch for potential first-time buyers. That is why we moved with the Affordable Housing Act, brought it in and have passed it. That is why we have amended the Land Development Agency legislation to provide for a much greater level of affordable housing to give hope back to people who feel that they have been disenfranchised and that, whereas they are working, they will never be able to buy their own homes. Under this Government, they will be able to do so. This is a further provision we are bringing in whereby, for the first time in planning law, homeownership be recognised as a specific tenure. Then we will bring forward measures whereby a local authority will be able to designate under a given planning permission the percentage of a given estate above the Part 5 requirement for owner-occupier, first-time buyers. I know it is late in the evening - or, rather, early in the morning - but this is a significant change. It is one we, the three parties in this Government, committed to doing and which we have done. It is another part of a suite of affordability measures, protections and levelling the pitch for those young and not-so-young people who are out there working, paying their taxes, doing their thing and paying rents at too high a level. They want to see homes for them. I am absolutely determined, and this Government is determined, that we will do that. That is why it is appropriate for these amendments to be in this Bill.

The Bill speaks to delivering streamlined housing. Let us remember what we are about here because we have had some disagreements and good debate right through the evening on various things. Fundamentally, this is about improving our planning system, and I do not think any Senator will make an argument to me that the planning process for large-scale developments as it stands cannot be improved on. That is why, on Second Stage, in fairness, there was no dissent on this. We now have a real opportunity with this owner-occupier guarantee to show that we are setting out in the guidelines that we are now putting homeownership into primary legislation as a form of housing tenure. That is very significant. I would therefore be grateful for the support of Senators from all sides of the House for these two amendments.