The Chairman made the point that this committee also deals with environmental matters. In sections 32, 33 and 34 the opportunity has been taken on urban renewal relief for the Temple Bar area and the Custom House Dock site to increase the square metreage of qualifying apartments from 90 to 125. Will the Minister, who is more expert in this area, tell me the underlying reason for that? As the Chairman said, the Minister of State, Deputy McManus, appeared before the committee recently and spoke about this issue.
SECTION 34.
Question proposed: "That section 34 stand part of the Bill."
The view was that the unit sizes were too small and tended to distort the population profile of the occupants. A square footage of 1200 would equate in floor area to a typical semi-detached three bedroom, five room house and, therefore, would accommodate families with children if desired. The thinking behind it was to attract a greater mix of accommodation.
I assumed that was the reasoning behind it because the original square footage confined the opportunity to buy to a very small category of people. In years to come, one may end up with special problems in some of those areas. I believe in letting the market make its own decisions but the change is a good one.
The date 24 January, 1999 is used for the termination of the lease in the Customs House docks site. I do not know what is special about 24 January in any year but there must be some good reason why it is used. In the Temple Bar area, the date is 5 April, 1998. Why can we not have the same date for the all of them?
The specific date is not a rounded calendar date but the date on which the original contract was signed. It is technical explanation.
That is all right.
I am reluctant to bring this up because the last time we spoke about it when Deputy McManus was here, some of us made some comments and received a very irate letter and telephone calls from a certain auctioneer who was very upset.
Deputy Ryan used the word and he got the letters.
It was not only me; others used stronger language. Would the Minister consider a minimum size for apartments? In our constituency many people are commenting on the size of the apartments. There is very little storage space in them and they are very small. I will not give any descriptions because I might get another letter. I do not want to undermine the idea because the urban renewal scheme was fantastic but we must consider the people living in them and their long term environment. It would be interesting to look at a minimum size or a requirement that a certain percentage must be provided for storage. They have such regulations in England but we do not seem to have them here.
We are in consultation with the Department of the Environment which is the Department setting standards and which would address minimum criteria such as those to which the Deputy is referring. I would be slow to go much further. As Deputy McCreevy said, if one starts setting minimum standards, one is setting a minimum price. A minimum price may be just above the range of people who might otherwise want to buy. If there is capacity to add to storage later in the lifetime of a building, somebody can buy in the first year and have a storage improvement plan over three or four years. This does not necessarily mean that the floor area of the unit has to be increased.
I resist the temptation to become Minister of the State at the Department of the Environment where I once was as this is a finance provision. However, we will talk to the Department of the Environment about standards and regulations. There has to be a certain degree of flexibility otherwise it can get very prescriptive and consequently costly.
I know that but we are giving huge tax incentives to people to build accommodation in the inner city. I do not want to exaggerate the point because it has been exaggerated but we want to make sure that the accommodation being built is to a certain standard and of long term benefit to the people buying it. I am sure the Minister has received the same complaints.
I have no problem with that. We are required to have ongoing discussions with the Department of the Environment in relation to regulations on this matter.
I know a case where an individual bought two apartments because of the point Deputy Ryan raised and made them into one.
Chairman
The explanatory memorandum states that there is to be an increase from 90 to 125 square meters for apartments. Does that apply to houses also?
To dwellings.
Question put and agreed to.