This side of the House welcomes many parts of the new Planning and Development Bill. Legislation, in whatever order it comes before the House, will not in itself deliver additional housing units on the housing market. There was a good deal of speculation about this matter during last summer when this Bill was first produced. The Minister attempted to present the new Planning and Development Bill to the country as a great panacea which would ultimately sort out the housing crisis, but it is not a panacea. While there are many welcome sections in the Bill, ultimately it will not result in one additional new housing unit on the housing market before at least 2002 or 2003. That point must be emphasised. Legislation will not sort out the housing crisis but rather political action and responsibility.
Over the past two years there have been two fine reports from Dr. Peter Bacon who made specific recommendations on density proposals, local authority house building plans and planning problems. Yet we have still to see those decisions implemented. On the matter of density, there is no point in the Department of the Environment and Local Government publishing guidelines and giving them to each local authority planning department if they are not implemented. We have seen countless examples since the original publication of the density guidelines, particularly in the Dublin area, of local authority planning and development departments not adhering to the guidelines. There are countless examples where, with specific allocations of new housing units, particularly public housing, the guidelines are not adhered to and some local authorities cannot build their allocation of new starts which in a given year.
As was stated by all speakers in the debate yesterday, there are constant problems relating to planning and the absence of planners to expeditiously deal with planning applications which come before local authorities is referred to at every council meeting. Legislation in its primary form or regulations will not sort out the housing crisis. The Department of the Environment and Local Government should take a lead on the issues I have mentioned, such as density, the completion of local authority housing starts and planning, to ensure that good practice is adhered to in local authorities countrywide.
As Deputy Dukes said last night, a raft of legislation has been introduced in the past ten to 20 years by various Governments, but it is not implemented by local authorities. Legislation by itself, therefore, will not sort out the problems.
There are many welcome sections in the Bill. In the Dublin area in particular there is a difficulty in starting various infrastructural projects which should have been completed some time ago. The C-ring around Dublin city is a classic example. The M50 motorway, a key arterial route around the city, still has not been completed 15 to 20 years after it was first proposed.
There are also problems relating to the implementation of Luas. There is no doubt that the planning process is causing major infrastructural difficulties. The problems will become more acute in the next ten years. It is worth contemplating on the population trends the ESRI and others have predicted for the next ten years. According to the last census of 1996, there was a population of 3.6 million people. If the current trends continue, it is reckoned that by 2011, the population will be 4.2 million and by 2016, 20 years from 1996, that figure will be 4.4 million. It is possible that in a 20 year period, the population will have increased by 20% to 25%. The problems this will cause in getting new housing units on the market must be realised and acted upon by the Government.
There will be problems with the population structure in the next ten to 15 years. Ireland's population structure is unusual in comparison with other EU countries as the vast bulk are aged between 19 and 65 years. It is argued that there has been a problem with housing supply in the past five years because those in their thirties, who are at an age when they want to purchase a house, have been unable to do so because of the massive increase in demand. Since 1980 there has been a decline in the birth rate which will provide an opportunity to change the culture of dependency on social welfare etc. In the next ten years the population will increase but will also include more people who are unable to buy houses because of demand.
It is reckoned that in the next ten years 500,000 new homes will have to be built to deal with the housing demand. This is a massive increase in housing output. In 1996, 26,000 units came on the housing market and last year the figure was 48,000. However, it is reckoned we will have to produce 50,000 units every year for the next ten years in order to deal with the demand for houses. The current housing stock is about 1.4 million units – by 2010 and 2011 there could be almost two million. This represents a 25% increase in the total number of housing units. One of the worst recent predictions is that if the current rate of growth in the Dublin area continues, it is likely that in ten years 50% of the population will be living in the Dublin region. That cannot be countenanced. We cannot have 50% of the population living in a radius of 40 miles from Dublin city. That is, to use the Minister's words, not sustainable.
We need to ensure there is better spatial planning and to select the areas where there will be a massive increase in housing demand. The Government has put this process on the long finger. It refused to specify these hubs of development in the national development plan. There is no point in delaying a proposal which needs to be implemented in the next 12 months. The Government has made a curious commitment in the plan – it says it has set up a new unit and that in three years it will have decided the location of the developmental hubs for housing output but it has not made a decision. That is not proper decision making. Many of the commitments in this legislation are highly suspect because the Government is refusing to decide on the new population growth centres. We cannot have 50% of the population living in the Dublin region within ten to 15 years.
There are a number of assumptions to be made. Obviously we need to build more houses quickly. We must utilise our land to provide for the increasing population. We must take a radical look at the development of our cities and towns and ensure that people live in the heart of those communities. We do not want Ireland to be the same as America, where people live on the verge not at the heart of the cities. This needs to be addressed in the Bill. We must plan new developments in a sustainable way – I referred to the establishment of new population growth centres in the next ten years. Politically, long-term decisions must be taken. One of the interesting points in the recent NESC report on capacities and choices is the issue of long-term political decision making. We must decide in the next 12 months where we are going to put the increasing population and we must make those long-term decisions in favour of certain areas. The typical political response of all Governments is to give a little bit to all parts of the country rather than designate certain areas as growth centres.
I wish to address Part V of the Bill and also to discuss the fundamental flaw of the Bill, which is the Minister's failure to deal with the issue of quality and standards in the construction industry. The Minister spoke about the fundamental principles which are supposed to be enshrined in this Bill – sustainable development and a better and more accountable planning process. However, he did not refer to the key aspects of housing supply and demand which are quality and standards. The Government has not treated this issue seriously. The Bill needs to be amended to provide for the establishment of an independent building standards agency which would effectively police the construction industry and guarantee quality to people purchasing houses at a cost of £170,000 and more.
The Department has a building advisory group, but it does not have the resources, it is not enshrined in law and makes virtually no difference. I recently brought the issue of hollow block construction to the Minister's attention. This is one of the greatest scandals emerging in the construction industry. Hollow block construction is recognised worldwide as one of the most deficient forms of construction in terms of its thermal and insulation performance. The vast majority of the houses built by speculative developers in this city are built with hollow blocks as opposed to wooden frames or cavity walls. It is a scandal that the Department will not abolish this form of construction. This is compounded by the fact that a memo sent to the Minister of State, Deputy Molloy, in 1998, by a section of the Department of the Environment and Local Government, highlighted the fact that hollow block construction would have to be allowed for in building regulations. That was made clear in a note sent to the Minister in 1998 which stated that the Department would probably have to revise technical guidance document L on the consolidated building regulations sooner than was planned, due to the CO2 emissions target set by the Kyoto Convention, but that it was not desirable to signal this to the outside world just yet because the next leap in building standard insulation would probably involve making it difficult for hollow block construction, used widely in the Dublin area, to survive. This has implications for manufacturers of hollow blocks, builders and the cost of new houses.
This causes conflict for the Minister. He signed the Kyoto and Buenos Aires agreements on the reduction of CO2 emission and is responsible ultimately for the sustainable development policy. How can the Minister, who is trying to meet the targets set out in the Kyoto convention, also be responsible for setting minimum targets for insulation in the construction industry? There is a fundamental conflict, between his responsibilities for road development and for the environment. The Minister has a strong tack when it comes to the car industry but he does not have the same views about the construction industry and the establishment of houses using hollow block construction methods which have been proven to be deficient in terms of insulation.
Yesterday the report "Homes for the 21st Century – the Costs and Benefits of Comfortable Housing for Ireland" was launched and one of its clear conclusions was that standards of thermal efficiency in Irish housing were among the lowest in northern Europe. If we are to build 500,000 new houses in the next ten years, many of them in the Dublin area, we will have to raise the standards of construction techniques. The Building Advisory Group will present its report to the Minister by 2001, with the new guidelines coming into force in January 2005. Five years will be lost during which time it will be permissible for hol low block construction to continue. That represents 25% of new housing stock.
Quality will have to be stitched into the Bill because it is fundamentally flawed. The Minister has refused to face his responsibilities on construction quality. We will revisit this matter on Committee Stage and I will propose the establishment of a separate authority to ensure building standards. That will ensure that continuous problems with builders walking away from housing estates, is dealt with. The Bill does not make any commitment to deal with that issue convincingly.
This Bill gives us an opportunity to get planning and development right for the next 20 years. The Minister was open to suggestions on Committee Stage in the Seanad. I hope he will be as open on Committee Stage in this House.