I welcome that the Minister has given some clarification on that. As we all understand, there is a significant difference in rural and urban areas, and this changes the kinds of interventions that need to be made in some circumstances. We must look at the legislation in front of us. The Minister spoke of some exceptional circumstances and some limited circumstances, and said this would not apply in areas of higher prices and in more urban areas. I can see nothing in the legislation that refers to any of those limit…

I will press the amendment.

I will speak briefly to my amendment, No. 32, which is similar to Deputy Fitzmaurice's amendment. It seeks to limit eligibility to purchase affordable homes to intending owner occupiers.

Likewise, I will not be opposing this legislation, although I do have a different view as to what the best approach is. As the Minister is aware and as Deputy Ó Broin has noted, there is a lot of commentary at the moment suggesting we might be heading into a period of significant increases in inflation. We all hope that will not happen but KBC is reported today as saying we are heading into a "noisy and nasty period of inflation". This commentary and analysis is based on the increase in the price of raw materials, …

I move amendment No. 1: In page 4, lines 9 to 23, to delete all words from and including “(1) Notwithstanding” in line 9 down to and including line 23. Rushing through this legislation and using the guillotine has consequences. This has been done previously with planning legislation and has resulted in a Bill being rushed through before Christmas with changes to substitute consent which resulted in fines for Ireland for failure to comply with EU environmental impact assessment requirements at the Derrybrien wind fa…

I will start where Deputy Duncan Smith finished. He made a very good point about the impact on children whose parents are renting. It is what I have heard from parents who are renting and are subject to rent increases that they cannot afford or are given a notice to quit, an eviction notice. It is exactly as Deputy Smith described. Their children do not know if they are going to see their friends again, if they will see the other kids in the GAA club again or if they will have to move school. In some cases, it may …

I will speak in support of the amendments. I start with the point on the delivery of homes on public lands, who does it and whether private builders are involved. There is a key distinction that needs to be made and Deputy Ó Broin has made it. In terms of delivering homes, there is a huge difference between contracting tradesmen and private builders and having a private developer leading the project. There is a difference in cost to this. If private developers are involved, they have higher financing costs than are…

I agree with Deputy Mattie McGrath about the use of the guillotine. It is not an acceptable practice. It is a pity because a considerable amount of time was spent on the Bill in committee and it was a good process with good engagement. It is a pity the time is not being allocated to finish the process properly because I believe legislation benefits from discussion and scrutiny. There is a key thing missing in this Bill and in the direction the LDA is going, that is, the area of strategic land assembly, which is wha…

I agree with Deputy Smith on the guillotine. To be fair, I acknowledge that a small number of amendments are being addressed by the Minister. Many of the substantive issues we have raised are not being addressed and this is of significant concern to us. One of the areas in which the Minister was very strong on Committee Stage, and in his comments in public and in the media, is that he gave a very clear commitment that on Report Stage he would bring an absolute guarantee that 100% of the LDA homes in the large urban…

I also do not agree with moving the debate on the Covid-19 vaccination programme to later in the week. I also object in the strongest possible terms to the use of the guillotine on the Land Development Agency Bill 2021. Considerable time has already been devoted to that Bill on Committee Stage, so it really is very disappointing that the Government is seeking to guillotine it now. With some more time allocated, we could do the Bill proper justice. It is significant legislation and it deserves proper scrutiny and ad…

Yesterday, Professor John FitzGerald said the Government's plan to inflate house prices through the shared equity scheme was a bad idea for Ireland and a case of politicians doing stupid things. He pointed out that property owners and landowners would benefit from the scheme, not potential buyers. In the UK, a similar scheme led to a boom in profits for large developers. The Central Bank, the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, and officials from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage an…

If they are watching and listening, I do not intend to use the full 20 minutes. I intend to be significantly short of that but we will see how that goes. Someone in this Chamber saying he or she will be quicker than he or she thinks are famous last words. I have issues with any planning legislation being rushed. I understand the rationale for it in this situation but you can have unintended consequences and unforeseen flaws in planning legislation when it is rushed through like this. The lack of scrutiny and indepe…

I thank Deputy Ó Broin for bringing this motion and it is positive the Minister is not opposing it. That is welcome. Unfortunately, the failure to acquire the Irish Glass Bottle site is a scandal and an example of a massive missed opportunity to ensure all the homes which would be built would be genuinely affordable or social and it is short-sighted. Reading through some of the correspondence from the Freedom of Information Act, FOI, which was reported on earlier this year, the Secretary General of the Department o…

What is the Minister's response to the latest CSO residential property price index report showing that house prices have risen by 4.5% over the past year? The Tánaiste, who has made a lot of pronouncements on housing recently, defended these prices on the basis that price levels have not yet surpassed the Celtic tiger peak. What price levels does the Minister think would be acceptable?

I would like to hear if the Minister has a view on price levels or if housing for all will set targets. In the past week, a house in Rathmines in poor condition and in need of significant renovation has attracted a bidding war with offers in excess of €530,000 above the asking price. These kind of bidding wars create huge anxiety and fear in prospective first-time buyers and have not been seen since the Celtic tiger years. Housing utility costs are 78% higher here than the EU average and Dublin has the second highe…

Will there be targets for price levels in housing for all or does the Minister and Government have a view on that? There are only 7,000 or 8,000 new build homes available on the open market each year. The rest are bought by institutions or for one-off houses or social housing. In the context of some of the highest house prices in the eurozone, the warnings that prices could reach Celtic tiger levels, the sharp increases in the cost of construction building materials mentioned by the Minister and the warnings from t…

This question is about quality standards for homeless accommodation. It is important that national quality standards are applied by all providers of accommodation for people experiencing homelessness. How many providers are applying these standards? Why are the private for-profit providers not applying these standards? When will they be applying them?

I thank the Minister for his reply. Much work and consultation went into the creation of these standards and they are good. It is an issue that they are not being applied to the private providers. These services are funded by the local authorities and are in receipt of funding through the Minister's Department to provide accommodation. We have some serious issues. Hostels that were shut down by non-governmental organisations, NGOs, because of poor standards have been reopened by private, for-profit sector providers…

These standards were drawn up to apply to all providers of services, be they funded by the local authorities or private, for-profit or not-for-profit entities. The standards are not being applied to the private providers. There is talk of parallel standards but when it comes to the inspection forms, the NQSF is a detailed inspection form of 12 pages that touches on many issues and contains many good standards whereas the forms for inspections of private accommodations reflect a bare, minimal process. Much of the go…

I will start by following up on some of the points made by Deputy Duncan Smith about investment funds and the issue of buying homes and second-hand homes. Last weekend, there was coverage in the Business Post , by Killian Woods, of a new-build home in Malahide, in the Minister's constituency. It is in a great development with great amenities in a highly sought-after area. It has been vacant for the last four or five years and was bought by an investor. The point being made was simply that the return from the house …