Seanad debates

Tuesday, 8 November 2022

Housing for All: Statements (Resumed)

 

2:30 pm

Photo of Martin ConwayMartin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is also important to point out that people have been assisted in building houses, with 36,000 in receipt of the Rebuilding Ireland grant and 1,600 being assisted through the new scheme with the local authorities. These are very important incremental steps in the right direction. Yes, the targets are ambitious. They probably should be more ambitious but we must be realistic as well and we have to be able to deliver as close as possible to the targets. Unfortunately, we are looking at a situation in Ireland, which is not uncommon throughout the world, where construction inflation is at a significantly high level. It is an awful lot dearer now to build a house compared to even five or ten years ago. It is not just the private sector that is grappling with these costs in providing accommodation; the public sector and the State is also facing this issue.

I want to see more done in villages and in towns. We must be realistic. There are pubs in villages and towns throughout Ireland that are closed and will not reopen. Drapery shops, shoe shops and other retail units are closed and will not reopen. In the streets of many of our capital towns, it is pitiful to see the number of empty buildings that are there and have been there for years. I believe we need to bite the bullet, realise they are not going to be a profitable or sustainable retail offering any more and provide the necessary supports to turn them into accommodation. Similarly, there are shops all over the country with empty spaces upstairs that remain empty because of the very tight regulations, some of which are necessary and some I quite frankly believe to be over the top. Many hundreds of thousands of families in this country grew up and were raised over shops. I cannot see why there cannot be incentives to encourage people who have retail space on the ground floor to turn the upstairs into accommodation. This needs to be looked at.

Public representatives also have a responsibility. Senator Kyne referred to this. I remember the hassle that Senator Kyne got by refusing to object to social housing in his constituency. I suffered the same when I was a councillor because I refused point blank to object to social housing. I have been a public representative for 18 years, between the local authority and the Seanad, and to this day I have never once objected to a housing development. I do not expect that I ever will, because we need houses. Public representatives need to stand up and show leadership and say they will not object to the building of homes for people simply because it is politically expedient to do so. It is wrong to do so. We have the local authorities and we have a planning appeals process. As flawed as elements of that may be, it is better to let them adjudicate on whether it is appropriate or right for a housing development to happen, as opposed to public representatives, be they councillors or Members of the Oireachtas, deciding to object because they are being hauled before a public meeting and it is the popular thing to do.

I call on all colleagues to take a step backwards, to show leadership, to stop objecting to planning applications for large-scale housing developments, and particularly social housing developments, and to let the local authority planning offices actually do their job.

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