An Bord Pleanála suffers from a decrease in staffing as delays in planning permission roll on11/11/2018
- New data reveals staffing is still significantly below 2008 levels as housing crisis continues -
Fianna Fáil Housing Spokesperson, Darragh O’Brien TD has obtained and compiled data which reveals there has been a reduction of over 10% in the number of staff in An Bord Pleanála since 2008. This has occurred despite the fact that according to their latest report, the body’s work load has grown by 19% year on year since 2016. Deputy O’Brien commented, “At a time when housing is so urgently needed, facilitating development projects should be a priority but instead there are very clear signs of serious blockages in planning. “Numerous builders have raised their concerns with me regarding undue delays in An Bord Pleanála reaching a decision on proposed new housing developments. “The statutory body has a legal obligation to reach a decision within a set timeframe but the rate of completion within that specified time has gone from 79% to 64% in 2016 to 2017. It’s now the case that the average completion time has risen by another 2 weeks from 15 weeks to 17 weeks. As more and more decisions are being drawn out with requests for further information, these targets seem to be slipping. The end result is that it is taking exceptionally long to get a final decision on a housing proposal which in turn costs more and takes longer to build badly needed homes. “During a major housing emergency, staffing in our national planning agency is still 11% below 2008 levels. It therefore appears that there is an insufficient number of staff to deal with planning decisions in a prompt manner. “Minister Murphy has stated he is satisfied that An Bord Pleanála is sufficiently resourced yet that’s at complete odds to the growing fears raised by builders that are sitting on housing projects waiting to get building. “Effectively tackling the housing crisis requires a wide range of measures and ensuring that planning decisions are made in a timely manner is one of them. He concluded, “I am calling on the Minister to boost the resources available to An Bord Pleanála and ensure local authorities are adequately equipped to carry out their planning duties.” - Local Deputy raises need for increase in resources allocated to An Garda Síochána in light of recent incidents in Malahide Portmarnock -
Local Fianna Fáil TD, Darragh O’Brien has said that the lack of Garda resources in the North County is a contributing factor in the number of violent incidents in the locality. Deputy O'Brien was speaking following a number of attacks carried out by thugs on teenagers in the Malahide and Portmarnock areas over the past week. He said, “A number of threatening and violent incidents have taken place recently and in the space of a couple of days in the one area. There is a great degree of concern among the parents that have contacted me directly regarding these targeted crimes. “The lack of Gardaí in North Dublin and in Fingal in particular has certainly been contributing to a general sense of fear and unsafety in communities. From Balbriggan to Rush & Lusk, Swords, Donabate & Portrane to Portmarnock and Malahide, Skerries to Naul and beyond, these deficits are being felt. “The whole Dublin-Fingal region has experienced a cut of over 20% to Garda resources in the past five years. Rather than focusing on preventing criminal activity altogether, Gardaí are just about resourced enough to deal with current demands. That’s not good enough. “Cllr Eoghan O’Brien and I regularly meet with local senior Gardaí to discuss the ongoing issues with policing in Fingal. It’s very important to recognise that these recent incidents are not a reflection on the hard work and dedication shown by local Gardaí, it’s just not possible to prevent these crimes when our police force are not well enough equipped by the State. “Malahide, where these particular incidents involving young people took place, just about has a Garda Station operating on limited opening hours while Rush Garda Station is still not operational despite repeated promises from Fine Gael. These are densely populated areas and without a decent Garda presence. I will continue to campaign for this station to be open 24/7. “I've heard from countless residents who have attended my public meetings on crime, that they are fearful while out and about. We need more Gardaí assigned to police our community and help remove some of the fear and danger experienced by people living in Fingal. This Government must wake up to that fact. “As a community we must send a clear message that crime or anti-social behaviour of any nature will not be tolerated. I do hope that the young people who have been affected are recovering from what must have been a deeply traumatising experience,” concluded Deputy O'Brien. Just 227 Compulsory Purchase Orders were issued for houses since 2011 in the entire country1/11/2018
- Poor use of statutory powers despite 12.3% national vacancy rate-
“We need to get to the root of why local authorities are failing to make use of Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs) for vacant housing,” said Fianna Fáil’s Housing Spokesperson Darragh O’Brien as new data identified just 277 CPO attempts in the past seven years across the State. Fianna Fáil submitted FOI requests to each city and county council covering the use of CPO and Derelict Sites Act acquisitions. “Major inadequacies have been identified with the use of these statutory provisions by local authorities. With just 227 CPO attempts were made, at an overall cost of €2.6 million, questions needs to be asked as to why the CPO attempt rate is so low when the number of vacant units in the State is so high. “According to Census 2016 data, there was a national vacancy rate of 12.3% with some 184,000 vacant properties, including 30,000 in Dublin, across Ireland. Other cities, such as Cork, Galway and Limerick, had just fewer than 15,000 vacant units between them. A report by Indecon released last month recommended a major programme of CPOs to tackle vacancy rates rather than a Vacant Property Tax. “We need to get to grips with the housing crisis by building more units and getting the most out of the existing housing stock. That’s a given. However, the poor usage by local authorities of their CPO powers compared to the high vacancy rates across our cities just doesn’t make sense. “The net result is thousands of homes, suitable for housing families, are being left empty. The low numbers clearly indicate that there are serious barriers to our county and city council using their CPO powers to tackle the housing crisis. “A far more ambitious approach to addressing the high vacancy rates is needed from our local authorities, and especially our city councils. The failure to utilise CPOs to acquire units that are being neglected is compounding the housing crisis. “The Government has an important role in signalling to Councils and owners of long term vacant properties that, unless they bring them back into use themselves, they will be used for housing purposes. A practical step would be for the Government to incentivise local authorities to acquire vacant properties and resell them by covering conveyancing and other costs incurred by local authorities in the process of acquiring and reselling the properties. “In addition the Department should clarify with all local authorities their statutory powers to acquire vacant properties for social and affordable housing purposes. This will not solve our housing crisis but it should form part of our overall efforts to get more homes on the market and for social housing, concluded O’Brien. Affordable Housing Seminar
Speech of Darragh O’Brien TD Fianna Fáil Spokesperson on Housing, Planning and Local Government Good morning Thank you for the invitation to speak here this morning. I’m delighted to have the opportunity to delve into one of the pressing policy issues facing our country today. That the Ó Cualann Co-op has become a by-word for affordable housing is a testament to the work and innovation of the organisation. I hope seminars like today help to advance that reputation and our capacity to deliver affordable homes throughout the country. I want to spend my few minutes this morning going into some of the detail of the new affordable housing scheme that emerged from the budget. We were focused on delivering genuinely affordable units in our budget talks because of our concerns that home ownership was slipping away from a generation. The statistics are stark. Rents have soared to over 26% above the previous 2008 peak. Dublin city dwellers are now spending as much as 55 per cent of their take-home pay on rent. House prices are 90% higher than they were in 2012 while since then Central bank rules require a 10% deposit and a 3.5 time income limit. This cocktail of House prices, spiralling rent combined with strict Central Bank rules have meant that home ownership levels have slipped to record lows of 67.6% across the country the lowest since 1971, down from a high of 82% in 2004. The age at which home ownership became the majority tenure category was 35 years in 2016. Prior to that age, more householders were renting rather than owning their home. In comparison to previous censuses dating back to 1991, the ages which marked the changeover between renting and home ownership were 32 years (2011), 28 years (2006), 27 years (2002) and 26 years (1991). Clearly home ownership is moving further and further away for young people. Reflecting the CSO data in Ireland the Resolution Foundation in the UK has found that homeownership rates have slipped most dramatically amongst millennials. It has also had broader repercussions on the quality of life people enjoy with younger people enjoying less space and commuting longer than their parents did. This all underlines the pressing need to provide affordable homes particularly in our cities and drove on our commitment to securing a revamped Affordable Housing scheme in the budget. Fine Gael abolished the Affordable Housing scheme in 2012. It was theoretically re-established it this year but allocated just €20m to the scheme in 2018 and delivered none to date. No regulations or criteria have been signed on the scheme. €25m was due to be spent on the scheme in 2019. Revamping this became a key focus for Fianna Fail in Budget talks. Affordable Housing had to be an integral part of the budget. The main outcome from budget talks was quadrupling that money to the Serviced Sites Fund and securing a new focus on delivery. This is an important point. Back in the summer the government claimed it was allocated €75m to a new affordable housing scheme. However that was spread out over a series of years, not €75m every year. This new scheme quadruples the amount of money every year for the next three years from €25m to €100m per annum. It sets out new criteria and timelines for delivery. The O’Cualann example shows that it is possible to deliver genuinely affordable homes with this money. According to Department PQ data it costs €210,000 to build a standard three bedroom home on state owned lands. In areas where affordability is an issue the average cost is €240,000 to build. That’s much cheaper than the €330,000 or more it costs a private developer because there is no profit margin or land costs. This price will be further reduced by a direct state subsidy through the Serviced Sites Fund of €50,000 per unit. This will bring the cost down to €190,000 on average. This is an affordable unit to a household on €57,000 a year which is the average household income in the state according to the CSO. It takes 59 weeks for a project to go from planning to completion. If the financing is put in place and spending started in 2019, 2,500 new units should be place by 2020 and every year after. This should be the start of a new state led commitment in co-operation with AHBs to deliver affordable homes on the required scale. Local Authorities, Approved Housing Bodies and Co-operatives will be tasked with building the units. This is similar to how social housing units are delivered with a mixture of AHBs, Co-ops and the Local Authorities in charge of construction. They can sub-contract out the work or undertake using their own personnel. Local Authorities must be fully equipped with sufficient skills and expertise to carry out their core duties of delivering housing. Households on between €30,000- €75,000 per annum will be eligible. Based on the Re-Building Ireland Home Loan criteria this will cover Single income earners above €30,000 but below €50,000 and joint income earners above €30, 000 but below €75,000. These are households above social housing thresholds but unable to reasonably afford buying a new home. These income thresholds will be subject to on-going review. The new scheme falls under Part V of the 2009 Affordable Housing Act. Under that act the home owners were expected to gradually pay down the market reduction they received. For example if a house was worth €350,000 on the market but sold for €260,000 the home owner would be expected to pay back the €90,000 difference over time to the Local Authority. I think this is a complicated and cumbersome model. I am interested in hearing the views of people today on what is the fairest and most effective clawback mechanism. It must ensure that people are still enabled to access affordable homes without undue complication. These few thoughts briefly sketch out the basis of the new affordable housing scheme. It’s clear that we need a new ambition in affordable housing. A whole generation demand it. I look forward to discussing these issues and how we can scale up this model and deliver units quicker and more effectively. Thank you again for the invitation. |
NEWSArchives
November 2023
|