Aidan Davitt (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I raise the issue of planning permissions. Under some of the catch-all legislation that was brought in recently, the duration of planning permissions can no longer be extended. Planning permission is valid for five years, and that is that. Heretofore, during the previous recession and briefly during the Covid pandemic, a planning permission on which a person did not get an opportunity to act could be extended by five years. The intention of the recently introduced catch-all legislation was to force developers to build on sites with active planning permission.However, the unintended consequence was for guys who had one-off houses. They were building their own private home. They have seen the cost of building go exponentially through the roof and have had difficulty trying to get some of these workmen and whatever else, in addition to going through two-and-a-half-odd years of Covid. They have fallen under this legislation as well. One-off housing is a serious issue in rural Ireland. I know this is something close to the Leas-Chathaoirleach’s heart and he spoke about it here on a number of occasions. I would emphasis that the Acting Leader might speak to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, and the powers that be on this, particularly on one-off housing. There has to be a bit of leeway regarding one-off housing. We have done this before because we have separated how many units are included in a development and how many are not for social housing. We are able to differentiate. I would appreciate that.