Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I second and support the Deputy Leader's proposals for the Order of Business. I particularly want to welcome and look forward to the speech by the president of the GAA. He is a very significant individual but the GAA is also a very significant organisation in the country and one that is always worthy of great support. I am aware that this association has very significant support across these Houses, as it also has in local government.

I wish to raise a few issues. On yesterday's announcement by the Government on the suspension of the levy, there were mixed messages yesterday morning from the Taoiseach that it would be a three-year period. Later on in the day, when we had greater clarification, it came down to 12 months.

I have a view on development levies. Developers are levied by local authorities. The levy contribution scheme is a fully reserved function of all of the locally elected members of each of our 31 city or county councils and it is a matter for them. They propose, adopt and amend the scheme. There was no consultation with city or county councillors in respect of this. I spoke to the Minister yesterday afternoon during an engagement at the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage and he confirmed that while the County and City Management Association, CCMA, was involved, which does not come as a surprise to many of us in this House, the city and county councillors were not involved.

There is now to be another layer of administration in local authorities and we have not heard about the resources. To be fair to the Minister, he needs time to set out the finer detail. I have a deep concern about that because I do not believe in gifting developers additional taxpayers' money. It is not the Government's money; it is the people's money. I would have liked to have seen movement on VAT as a possible option but that was not pursued. This is to suggest that we are going to give developers another gift. These are the same developers who lobbied for the strategic housing development scheme, which this current Government abolished. They are the same developers who have hundreds of sites with full planning permission, which they are not activating. I sit on the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage and hear this every day of the week. We have a problem with developers, who seem to have an open charter and open door to walk around the corridors of Leinster House lobbying on behalf of the construction industry. These developers have it within their grasp to deliver these houses but choose not to because it is not profitable for them at this time.They control the land and they control development and now we are handing money out to them. One part of the scheme I do like, however, which came about as a result of pressure within 24 hours of the scheme's formal launch, is that it will benefit those building one-off houses for 12 months. That is significant because the cost of development levies could be up to €20,000, particularly on rural houses. The Government must within weeks honour the commitment to deliver rural housing guidelines. There is now a window of opportunity of 12 months, possibly with an extension, for a full waiver on development levies. The folks in rural parts will not be able to build the houses, however, because they do not have the permissions as we do not yet have rural guidelines.

I remind Senators that members of Macra na Feirme will be at Leinster House at lunchtime. They are well on their way at this stage. Their key issues are the need for rural housing guidelines and an easy system of navigating the planning processes in order that they can remain living on their farms and in their rural communities to support their elderly parents and families and that they can bring their children up in the land of their forebears, which they have inherited. Let us support them.