Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-29
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Richard Boyd Barrett (PBP), Dún Laoghaire

It is not planning objections that are the problem, as Mitchell McDermott said. We have 32,000 planning permissions that are being sat on. There are no judicial reviews, they have the planning permission, but they are not happening because of viability. What does that mean? It means profits - profits for your developer friends - or the lack of infrastructure, such as water infrastructure. We know from Irish Water that it is only being given enough money by the State for 30,000 units a year when we need 50,000 to 60,000 units. The Government is not putting in the infrastructure.
What about the developers, landlords and investors? The Minister, Deputy Lawless, summed up the Government's policy earlier this month. He said:
[Housing] is about international markets. It’s actually a spreadsheet in Zurich or New York or Antwerp, more so than a builder looking at a site in Longford or Roscommon, that’s actually deciding what happens here.
That is it. That is the policy. The investors in Zurich, Antwerp and New York, profit-driven, tell the Government to jump, and it says, “How high?” Meanwhile, the housing misery continues, with the most unaffordable rents, record numbers of people homeless, totally unaffordable house prices, speculation and land hoarding, as developers and investors sit on planning permissions, waiting for the Government to pass even more legislation in their favour, so profits can go up.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-29/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:34+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-29