Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 16 Nov 1999

Vol. 510 No. 6

Written Answers. - Land Development.

Bernard J. Durkan

Ceist:

318 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government his views on whether it is possible to meet the growing housing demand in view of the lack of available land for building purposes; the plans, if any, he has to address this issue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23661/99]

Minister for the Environment and Local Government (Mr. Dempsey):

I refer to the reply to Question No. 84 of 5 October 1999. Since then, my Department has updated the figures in relation to housing lands availability in the greater Dublin, Cork and Galway areas. This shows that the potential housing land supply in the Dublin Area could, subject to the necessary infrastructure development, increase to about 193,000 housing units over the next five years. This represents an increase of over 32 per cent on the estimate of 146,000 units contained in The Housing Market: An Economic Review and Assessment published in March this year.

The National Development Plan 2000-06, published yesterday, provides for massively increased investment in economic infrastructure such as public transport, roads and water and waste water services over the next seven years which will provide necessary services to open up land for housing development.

My Department is also pursuing a number of other measures to increase the availability of land and to make more efficient use of such land. Such measures include the provision of services for housing development through the serviced land initiative which will provide 100,000 additional serviced sites by the end of next year, the targeting of key infrastructure projects, particularly in the major urban centres where housing need is greatest, implementation of the residential density guidelines issued by my Department in September, and the acquisition on mutually acceptable terms of surplus State and Church lands. These measures and other measures relating to the supply of housing are being co-ordinated by a special housing supply unit which I recently established in my Department.

Furthermore, the Planning and Development Bill, 1999 requires each planning authority to develop a housing strategy to provide for the housing needs of the area covered by the development plan and which must ensure that adequate land is zoned for housing purposes.