Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2026: Committee and Remaining Stages
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-08
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John Cummins (FG), Waterford

What the Deputies are talking about here are smaller and darker apartments. I am simply making the comparison to our minimum standards. They are comparable to where the Deputies opposite have lauded the introduction of housing in other jurisdictions.
It is true to say that by virtue of the comments that have been made by Deputy Sheehan here where he has said that cost savings have been eroded as a result of inflation that the Deputy is acknowledging there were savings attached to the revised apartment standards. He will also be aware that, at the Oireachtas committee of which he is a member, some of the biggest developers in the country cited savings on average of €60,000 per scheme in terms of apartments. That is not insignificant. If we had not made those changes and we had significant cost inflation, what we would be talking about here would be a significantly increased cost of development. What we are about here, in terms of the viability measure, is taking apartment developments that already have permission and applying a two-year duration to it where internal configuration changes can be made. It is not to increase the number of beds or the number of persons who are accommodated. It is simply about ensuring that the mix can be altered to ensure there is greater viability within the system. I stand by the point that if this measure has the effect of ensuring that one apartment complex is delivered in this country and has permission that would not otherwise be delivered without an alteration to this, it will have been a successful measure.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-08/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:07+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-08