Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senators for their contributions. On the Government amendments, I note the huge challenge we are facing with homelessness and the Ukrainian citizens here. We must ensure we provide a strong and robust Government response and international protection. These Government amendments seek to temporarily disapply the Part 8 planning approval process for local authority developments, specifically for housing, to try to meet that demand. I understand that 38 different projects and sites have been volunteered by local authorities. Last week, the Cabinet approved €100 million in funding which will give local authorities a chance to reduce their debt level on various sites they own and deliver badly needed public housing for our citizens. This amendment will do a huge amount to resolve the issue.

To respond to Senator Warfield, there will be a quarterly report by local authorities on the specific sites that were using this mechanism to increase housing supply. We are talking about modern methods of construction and trying to use innovative responses to ensure we strongly increase our housing supply. The environmental impact assessment directive was transposed into our planning code in 2018. We are ensuring that all the projects that go through this process will have been screened out for AA and EIA, which are critical to meeting our very important environmental obligations. I fully appreciate the volume of legislation coming before Senators. I thank the committee for adjudicating on this legislation. I know Senators had a significant debate on Second Stage of the Bill, notwithstanding the new amendments.