Victor Boyhan urges collaboration to tackle housing crisis

First I want to welcome the Minister, it is the first time that I have had an opportunity to meet you here in the chamber. It is a huge owner's task, as Senator Fitzpatrick has said. I do not want to spend my ten minutes here looking back and I do not want to engage in a blame game. We have to recognise that we have a crisis and we have to do something about it. And I suppose in simple terms we have really got the state, and that is collective, government, state, opposition, whoever you are, whosoever is involved in this, needs to work in a collaborative way with the local authorities and the construction companies, the public sector, the private sector, because quite frankly people do not give a damn who is building the houses. We want to build homes and we want to build sustainable communities and that is the bottom line for people and I think there has to be a synergy between the public and the private sector. Let us get out of all this ideology, because it has not got us very far, versus public and private. We have synergies and we can tap into experience and finance, both from the private and public sector and I think that is the way to go and I think you have indicated that, Minister. There needs to be a very significant increase, of course, in what I like to call public housing, because I do not think we have got it out of our heads yet, our understanding of, shall we say, the Vienna model. I know Vienna is a very nice place to be, but public housing based on your disposable income of rent, that is what it is about. People can be proud and are proud to live in public housing. They want secure tenure and they want fair rent. I think that is a really important thing. I always think of the amount of equity we in Ireland, because we are so obsessed with ownership of home and property. The equity and the finance and the capital we have tied up in private homes, if only some of that was put into enterprise and other venture capital projects, what a very different country we might very well have. But I understand the preoccupation and the desire to own your own home and that is another issue for another day. So, I think we need to target our resources and that is really important. I just want to touch on a few items, Minister. I had the opportunity to meet the planning regulator at an event the other day. And he brought to my attention, he said something to me and I thought about it. I emailed him the next day, because he referred to the Dublin LA Building Bulletin quarterly reports that you will be very, very well aware of and I hadn't quite seen the last one. So I double checked with him on the figures and I printed off the report today so I was fully aware of the facts. In this document it says, development potential in active sites. This is a report that is on your desk and everyone else's desk who is involved in housing. There is a total of 49,212 permitted but uncommenced residential units, permitted but not being developed. Of these, 41,9400 uncommenced units are on 270 inactive sites and 7,272 uncommenced units on 198 active sites. What does that tell us? So it is not all about the planning. These have got planning. We heard so much about planning and somehow this is there. So I am going to encourage everyone, I am going to email this to everyone here today because then we need to look at it. We have got to ask and you have got to ask Minister and your officials have got to ask, what is going on? We have thousands and thousands of sites that have permission but are sitting on them. Who is making the money? Who is capitalising? So we have rezoned or local authorities have rezoned, the planning regulation may have looked at some of these or may not have looked at some of these but these are sites that are ready to go, technically should be built and you either use it and you lose it but with a housing crisis those figures are a disgrace. Turn next to on board Planal and you rightly said that planning was one of the critical components of this policy and rightly. We debated at great length in this house about the planning and development bill and the emergency of it and getting it through, it was guillotined in both houses of the Oireachtas. We still haven't had the bill translated into Oireachtas, if there was a legal challenge that would be an absolute requirement because people are entitled to litigate in Oireachtas. So that is an issue that I know has been addressed by the Oireachtas itself but resources will have to be put in place because I am told it may be next year before the full translation of this bill is ready. So I would ask you to talk to your people and your colleagues in your department and in the Oireachtas to see how we can fully resource and assist those people to carry out that critical part of parliamentary work. You will be familiar with the again disastrous strategic housing development proposals. Up to very recently on board Planala had a section on it and there were thousands and thousands of units there. I went to look for today, it was gone. I subsequently got one of my staff to check it out and I was told it was taken down. So I want to ask you another ask. I want you to contact on board Planala tomorrow and I want you to ask them, data and confidence is critically important if we have to bring people on this journey and explain the problems. Let's not sweep them under the carpet, let's not hide them, I am not suggesting you are doing any of that Minister, but I want to, the on board Planala is under your remit and I am asking that it will be put back up. I want to know how many units are waiting for approval within on board Planala under the now defunct strategic housing development scheme. So I think that was important. You will of course recall with your colleagues in government this was billed as the fast track scheme. Thousands and thousands still not developed on the fast track scheme and eventually people saw why isn't abandoned that scheme. So I would ask if you might take that matter up with on board Planala. I think another important document that you haven't referenced here today is the housing commission. The report on the housing commission is an excellent body of work. And we engaged and the state engaged and got this thing up and going. So I think we need to have a critical look, tease it out and maybe when the joint office committees are established and the one on housing and local government is established I think we need to look at that. There is a very significant amount of really positive work. And I think it is important that if the government are not accepting all the housing commission's recommendations we want to know why. I think you owe that and the government owe that to the people who engaged in the housing commission work. I want to also raise the issue of rural housing. I am a firm advocate of rural housing. You represent a rural constituency. You know and your colleagues be they councillors, senators and TDs know the demands for rural housing. It has to be of course sustainable. I accept that. There has to be tough conditions but fair. But I do believe we have got to and I call on you to honour a long standing commitment of many ministers to publish a draft, a draft, I am saying a draft, new rural housing guidelines. And I say draft because I think they should go out to a period of public consultation with all stakeholders and get feedback. But time and time again I am meeting councillors of all you, of all parties telling me and showing me letters from your department with promises being published. We know there has been nothing done there for years. So I am asking will you consider I think that important recommendation. I have indicated before you come in that I have received correspondence from a councillor in your party councillor Audrey Buckley from Fianna Fáil in relation to a number of concerns and I am very happy that you are going to take them up yourself directly with them if you wouldn't mind whatever you think is the appropriate thing. I also indicated in advance of here that I had written to you on behalf of councillor Thomas Welby from Galway County Council in relation to a circular 23 stroke 2021 in relation to and was sent to Chief Executives in relation to affordable housing fund the AAHF scheme and you might have a look at that in due course and respond as you consider appropriate there Minister. I just want to touch in the last two or three minutes I think it is important that we align our housing provisions and economic development in the national planning framework and you said that. We look at establishing a housing delivery oversight executive because people want to know what is happening and they want to trust people that the figures that they are being told are the correct figures. They are properly validated by an independent body and I think that saves any political, suggested political, suggested political manipulation of the figures. People want confidence and I am asking if you would consider the establishment of a housing delivery oversight office. I want further powers and resources for local authorities so that they can be enabled and supported to deliver on real sustainable housing projects within their area. I particularly want to make the ask for you to take urgent action to ensure the delivery of the Greater Dublin drainage project for 2030. That now is a blockage in some development and I think that is going to have to happen. So Minister, I accept that there are great difficulties, there are great challenges. I do not doubt for one moment people are here to support you across all parties and none in this House. I think it is important that we see stay focused. We have real and validated and accurate data for every aspect of the challenges because I think that in itself instils confidence in the policy makers and in your city and county councillors. I wish you well.