Michael Noonan (Limerick East, Fine Gael)
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Question 172: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if he will introduce a long-term strategy for the zoning and servicing of sufficient land to deliver housing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5261/06]

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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Under section 95 (1) of the Planning and Development Act 2000, planning authorities are obliged to ensure that sufficient and suitable land is zoned for residential, or for a mixture of residential and other uses, to meet the requirements of their housing strategy and to ensure that a scarcity of residential land does not occur at any time during the period of the plan or within a reasonable period thereafter. The Part V housing supply guidelines set out how planning authorities can meet their obligations in this regard.

It is incumbent on planning authorities to take all reasonable steps to ensure that sufficient zoned and serviced residential land is available throughout the lifetime of the development plan and beyond to meet anticipated needs and allow for an element of choice. In particular, to ensure continuity of supply of zoned and serviced residential land, planning authorities should ensure that at the time they make a development plan, enough land will be available to meet residential needs for a sufficient number of years to meet not just the expected demand arising within the development plan period of six years, but will also provide for meeting demand for a sufficient period beyond the date on which the current plan ceases to have effect.

Considerable resources have been provided under the national development plan to facilitate the servicing of land for residential purposes. The benefits of this investment are evidenced by the growth in housing supply, with almost 81,000 homes completed last year and a growth in the stock of serviced land for residential purposes. The results of a survey in 2004 indicate that at the end of June that year, there were over 12,500 hectares of serviced residential land zoned nationally, with an estimated yield of about 367,000 housing units. The results of the 2005 survey are not available yet but the broad indications are that the situation has further improved.

Last year, the Government decided to task all local authorities to review their land management strategies, to ensure that they had sufficient land available to support their five year action plans for social and affordable housing. This review is now under way at local authority level.