Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2025: Committee Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2025-07-15
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Joanne Collins (SF), Agricultural Panel

I will speak on amendment No. 1 to amendment No. 47. Like the rest of our amendments, this one is out of concern about public participation in all these changes.
The Government's changes to apartment sizes are madness. They are a repeat of past failures and will not work. It is rushed legislation, which could be open to legal challenge down the line. Public consultation was skipped. This will most likely have unintended consequences. The Minister of State should have sat down with Opposition parties and gone through pre-legislative scrutiny of this Bill.
There is nothing in the rules that will reduce the cost of building apartments. That has been said by many sources. They will just allow more smaller apartments to be put into the plans. Experts are saying the cost will not be reduced. Reducing minimum apartment sizes means renters will pay higher rents for smaller and darker apartments and that does nothing to increase the supply of housing or reduce the cost of rent, which is a huge issue throughout the country at the moment. It is likely to increase the value of the land and push up construction costs. The Irish Planning Institute has showed its disquiet, as many of my colleagues mentioned, and its concerns about the proposed changes.
I will leave it at that as I do not want to take up too much time. We are opposing amendment No. 47.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2025-07-15/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:03+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-07-15