Brian Stanley: Calls for mass-produced homes and rent rollback
Brian Stanley urged the minister to adopt a working housing plan, warning that rents, house prices and evictions are rising and that planned rent changes in March will worsen the crisis. He called for mass-produced homes, higher social housing targets, fast-tracked infrastructure in Leash and a rollback of the proposed rent changes.
Brian Stanley pressed the minister to increase social housing targets, introduce standard house plans for mass production, and reverse proposed rent changes due in March that he says will lead to more evictions.
He said the department’s population plan requires Leash to grow by 35% to 2035 but warned this cannot happen without infrastructure. He urged fast-tracking the northern orbital route in Port Leash, the bypass in Macmillic and the southern orbital route in Great Cullen and Carlow, plus necessary sewerage and water plants.
Stanley highlighted that housing targets were missed last year, citing a shortfall of 1,429 social houses, a significant failure on cost rental housing and a drop of over 60% in affordable house merchants. He also pointed to 15,000 notices to quit and eviction notices already recorded in the first nine months of the year as evidence of mounting pressure.
He argued for a limited set of seven to eight standard house plans to enable rapid, high-quality mass production and cut costs by 11-16% by removing repetitive council design procedures. He criticised current practice of treating each scheme as a blank canvas and urged the minister to adopt standard designs to reduce price and deliver homes faster.
Stanley warned that removing the 2% cap in March and shifting to market rents will increase tenancy turnover and evictions, noting average tenancy duration statistics. He pleaded with the minister to roll back the planned rent changes to avoid further displacement and urged immediate action on the linked measures he proposed.
Key demands
Brian Stanley pressed the minister to increase social housing targets, introduce standard house plans for mass production, and reverse proposed rent changes due in March that he says will lead to more evictions.
Infrastructure priorities in Leash and surrounding towns
He said the department’s population plan requires Leash to grow by 35% to 2035 but warned this cannot happen without infrastructure. He urged fast-tracking the northern orbital route in Port Leash, the bypass in Macmillic and the southern orbital route in Great Cullen and Carlow, plus necessary sewerage and water plants.
Missed housing targets and current pressures
Stanley highlighted that housing targets were missed last year, citing a shortfall of 1,429 social houses, a significant failure on cost rental housing and a drop of over 60% in affordable house merchants. He also pointed to 15,000 notices to quit and eviction notices already recorded in the first nine months of the year as evidence of mounting pressure.
Standard house plans and mass production proposal
He argued for a limited set of seven to eight standard house plans to enable rapid, high-quality mass production and cut costs by 11-16% by removing repetitive council design procedures. He criticised current practice of treating each scheme as a blank canvas and urged the minister to adopt standard designs to reduce price and deliver homes faster.
Rent changes and eviction warnings
Stanley warned that removing the 2% cap in March and shifting to market rents will increase tenancy turnover and evictions, noting average tenancy duration statistics. He pleaded with the minister to roll back the planned rent changes to avoid further displacement and urged immediate action on the linked measures he proposed.
We publish thousands of recordings to make Irish politics transparent and resistant to manipulation. Spotted an error? Report it — together we are building a reliable archive of Irish politics.
Other speeches
Tego samego dnia All speeches from this day →
Conor D McGuinness
Conor D McGuinness condemns minister's housing plan as 'abomination'
Richard O'Donoghue
Richard O'Donoghue backs developer-led infrastructure to fix housing
Danny Healy-Rae
Danny Healy-Rae criticises turf restrictions, cites briquette imports
Richard Boyd Barrett
Richard Boyd Barrett: Demands Action on Uber's Fixed-Fare Threat
Danny Healy-Rae
Danny Healy-Rae warns against six-year tenancy and Airbnb rules
Richard O'Donoghue
Richard O'Donoghue demands open vote on whistleblower protections
Transcript
Minister, we need a housing plan that's going to work. Rents are up, sky high, and we'll get higher in March. House prices are up, sky high. Evictions are up, sky high. 15,000 notices to quit. Eviction notices already in the first nine months of the year. So we need a plan that'll work. And your department has set out that Leash has to increase its population, due to increase its population, by 35% between now and 2035. What I'm saying to you is this, is that I see your plan to roll out infrastructure, and I welcome that if it's done. But without the infrastructure in Leash, it will not happen. The northern orbital route in Port Leash needs to be built to free up land for housing. The bypass in Macmillic needs to be built. The southern orbital route in Great Cullen and Carlow needs to be built. They need to be fast-tracked those projects, or the houses won't be built. That's along with sewerage plants and water plants that are needed as well. I'll just say to you that the housing targets were missed last year. 1,429 short on social housing. The cost rental housing missed by a country mile. Affordable house merchants, right, which are fully support, down by over 60%. Completely missed. And I want to suggest a few things to you. That the housing plan has to be accompanied by increasing those targets. We also need standard house plans. And back to this again. Standard house plans. We need the same plans for all counties. You need about seven or eight different types of plans. The officials in the department will tell you that they're using standard design. But that's not a standard house plan, right. If you want to mass produce something, not low quality, good quality, produce a good quality, produce a quick, reduce the price. You can reduce the cost of between 11 and 16% by cutting out this nonsense of councils having to go to the blank canvas every time and bring in architects when they want to build a house. Why is that not being done? Why are we not doing mass production? I'm also saying to you, please go back on your proposal for rents, rent changes in March. Because, you know, the 2% is gone in March. It'll be set at a market rent. And I can see where that's happening in my own area already. You know, changes in tenancies as well happen more regularly than every six years. The average is two and a half to three years, according to statistics. So you need to go back on that again. You're going to cause more evictions. And I'm pleading with you to stop it. So let's mass produce houses. Let's up the target for social housing. And roll back on your rent proposals for March, Minister. Thank you very much. Deputy Poric O'Sullivan.