I have been deeply shocked by these regulations and these new standards the Minister is introducing. As an academic, I did research for years. One of the starting points of research, of course, is gathering evidence. Policy is supposed to be evidence-based. The evidence that has been presented to justify these decisions does not stack up. The Government has claimed it will lead to savings of €50,000 to €100,000 per unit. We have not seen what the LDA has set out but in the estimates set out by the Department of housing, those claims that €100,000 will be saved do not stack up. We have heard clearly from other experts in the private sector who say that those savings will not be made. One piece is completely missing. Where is the evidence that these regulations will lead to savings for those who are going to rent the homes or, although it is highly unlikely, buy such an apartment? No mechanism is set out by which this decision, which will allow developers or investor funds to add more units to a development, will present any reduction in rents or house prices, which is what we are trying to do. I will set out in detail what has been presented by those experts - not by me but by others who work directly in the field. Something that disappoints me deeply about these regulations is that there was no consultation with key stakeholders. Perhaps the Minister could correct the record if that is not the case. Those stakeholders include, in particular, architects and planners. I am deeply frustrated and annoyed by these regulations. They are a capitulation to the developer and investor lobby. I do not know whether the Minister believes in them, but they are shocking. It feels as if the young people who will have to live in these homes are not being considered or thought of. It is, in my estimation, purely about two things. Those are increasing the profitability for investors and developers and pushing up the Government's figures for the housing statistics. That is deeply cynical and disappointing. I contend that the Minister is playing politics with the homes that people will have to live in. I do not say that lightly Ramming through this legislation will mean that generations of Irish people will be paying high rents to live in dark shoeboxes. It is a failure of vision and ambition when we see what is happening here. Every act of this Government so far has, it states, been intended to try to increase supply. Where is the supply of affordable housing? Let us look at what is actually being proposed here. The size of units is being reduced. Windows, balconies and community facilities are being removed. I want to read into the record the assessment of the changes by the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland. That organisation, as I am sure the Minister is aware, is the body that registers architects and represents their views. As the organisation describes, it works across the full breadth of construction, playing a vital role in the public and private sectors. It is at the forefront of designing and delivering the homes, schools, workplaces and civic spaces that shape our communities and projects that prioritise sustainability, safety and quality of life. These architects, it could be argued, might benefit from the redesign of these guidelines because it will mean more work for them. Yet the institute came out with a damning statement, which I will read into the record. It stated: "The recent statements [in regard to the apartment guidelines] appear to suggest a shift in direction to lower-quality solutions driven by short term expediency [and what it means there is political expediency] rather than long term vision and sustainable solutions that [create and] deliver real value for money." It went on to state: It is critical that we get this right. We are deeply concerned that moves to relax key design safeguards risk undermining the creation of sustainable, high-quality living environments and will create future long-term challenges for apartment owners and tenants. I will come back to this in the context of the Department's policy and guidelines on creating sustainable communities. The institute goes on to state: The new guidance will allow for development of apartment blocks with single typologies which is completely at odds with the previous work of the Department of Housing to strengthen the sustainable communities approach to delivering homes. On that, I quote the Government's own policy, Housing for All, which I looked up earlier today. Section 5.2 relates to the aim to support sustainable communities. What does this mean? The policy sets it out as: The creation of sustainable communities has been an enduring goal of housing policy in recent decades. Sustainable communities are places where people want to live and work. The second sentence bears repeating. These will not be places where people will want to live and work. The Government's policy further states: "They meet the diverse needs of existing and future residents, are sensitive to their environment and contribute to high quality of life." Architects and planners all make it very clear that these new guidelines will be detrimental to the quality of life provided in these new apartment blocks. The Government's own Sustainable Residential Development and Compact Settlements: Guidelines for Planning Authorities has among its key indicators quality design and placemaking. The document sets out "indicators of quality urban design and placemaking, which should inform the development strategy for settlements, neighbourhoods or an individual site". Within that, it points to what should be done in planning and design: The creation of sustainable communities ... requires a diverse mix of housing and variety in residential densities across settlements. This will require a focus on the delivery of innovative housing types that can facilitate compact growth and provide greater housing choice that responds to the needs of single people, families, older people and people with disabilities ... These groups will not be catered for in these mono-tenure micro-units that nobody will be able to afford. I will go back to the Royal Institute of Architects. I am reading this in detail into the record because it was utterly mistaken not to meet the institute's representatives - again, the Minister can correct me if he did meet them - to discuss these guidelines and take its points of view on board. I am also quoting it for the benefit of him and his advisers because I imagine they actually have not read this. Maybe they have, but they certainly did not consider what is in here, so we will continue. The RIAI states: "There is evidence that, over time, the cumulative effects of poorly sized and designed homes can contribute to social inequality and reduce overall productivity." The Department's new guidelines, "may also diminish Ireland's international competitiveness, particularly in retaining talent who value quality of life". This idea that the Government will build apartments that are micro-units and that are really expensive and that the international mobile professionals will just pay the rents is actually wrong. Everyone values and needs a quality of life. The RIAI also states: "The new proposals ... risk causing further delays to delivery of new housing projects as options are reassessed and new designs commissioned, which will take time to work through." Other Deputies on this side made that point as well. Again, we ask: where was the analysis done to actually assess what delays will result as these changes are made and the modifications are required? Architects will have two years to work up new designs that might have been started. I was talking to an architect yesterday who said, in terms of social housing and private housing, they expect to go back to the drawing board. Literally, the architects expect to go back to the drawing board to redesign the units. That will all take time, and it means that developments that were due to start will not now start. The Minister does not mind, however, because he has set out that the Department will not reach its targets this year and will not reach them next year and he knows that these units will come onstream probably in three to four years, just in time for the election, when he will be able to say, "Look, we have increased the units." Again, he is playing politics with people's homes. In a very significant paragraph the RIAI further stated: The RIAI agrees that action is urgently needed to accelerate housing delivery; however, there are other ways of addressing this. In Dublin, land prices are one of the single biggest contributors to the high cost of building homes, partly driven by speculation on land assets as a commodity. While not the only factor, they significantly affect affordability, feasibility, and development timelines. The RIAI believes a better, and more sustainable approach, is for the government to seek greater control of land values in the first instance. We see no emergency measures on land values. Where are they? Intervention on providing affordable land would reduce the cost and then, if affordable housing were to be built on it, could deliver genuinely affordable homes. The RIAI also states: Making better use of existing infrastructure that already benefits from essential services ... presents a real opportunity to speed up supply. In this regard, we need to continue incentivising the adaptation and reuse of existing vacant and derelict buildings ..., including vacant office spaces. (*The vacancy rate for Dublin office spaces is now at 17.5% .... The RIAI is advocating for increased resources to be deployed within our local ... authorities to kick start immediate progress in this ... area. The RIAI has more but I will not take up the Minister's time on it. I will go on to the Irish Planning Institute, the representatives of which I do not believe the Minister met or consulted either as regards these guidelines, but he can correct the record if that is not the case. I would be very interested to hear the institute's feedback on this. As regards the guidelines, Gavin Lawlor, president of the institute, said: "Professional planners not only recognise the gravity of the housing crisis - we are actively working to be part of the solution." The Minister can smirk and smile. I am not sure-----

Sentiment score: 0.08

Grand. That is all right.

Sentiment score: 0.23

Mr. Lawlor continued: "We welcome meaningful, evidence-based reforms that support the accelerated, coordinated, and sustainable delivery of apartments and homes in communities across the country." The institute goes on to say: In particular, the erosion of unit mix requirements represents a market-led approach to housing that is fundamentally at odds with the significant work undertaken by the Department of Housing to date to create a plan-led system with high quality, long term sustainable outcomes flowing from transparently and democratically adopted local development plans. This, and allowing changes to already permitted developments, also risks introducing more legal unpredictability. This point is also made by Niamh Towey in her excellent article in The Irish Times, which quotes lawyers and legal experts. One states: "the legislation is flawed and potentially unconstitutional due to the lack of public consultation on what could be a significant change to a developer's ... plan". The source further states: "any 'permitted modification' decision could be challenged in the High Court by way of judicial review". Again, we asked at the briefing for any analysis of risk assessment that the Minister undertook regarding potential legal challenges and none has been provided. I can only assume that he did no assessment in that regard, but it is a very real possibility that there will be delays as a result of legal challenges because of, again, his disconnect from people, to think that the Department can ram through a development that might have had 100 homes and will now have 400 homes, with no public consultation whatsoever. It beggars belief. My mind boggles at this because these developments will be flooded with judicial reviews and challenges. I was contacted by another architect about the impact of these changes. They said: "The priority should be delivering a variety of housing types that satisfy different family structures, life stages and adaptability for accessibility, ageing and special needs." It is a real issue that this housing does not provide that. The architect continued: Long delays in changing existing approvals to a high percentage of smaller studios and one beds might provide higher numbers in the short term but the long-term issues will emerge from a limited scope of housing stock that does not satisfy a broad scope of needs. Housing must accommodate families, couples, older people and people with disabilities and these new standards will not assist with that. That is truly damning because a question I have asked repeatedly is, in Dublin particularly, where are couples and families who want to have children going to be able to live and have children if all we have are micro-units – one beds and studios – where people cannot raise kids? “Would you live in these?” is the big question. What is the reality of living in these units? We asked for time to debate this issue in the Dáil this week. We were not given it. It is disgraceful and anti-democratic that the Government is ramming through this legislation without consultation with key stakeholders, public consultation or proper time in the Dáil. It is very regrettable that the Minister has gone about it this way. Another good article in The Irish Times spoke to couples who are living in small apartments. I will again read some of their quotes because this is the reality of what people will live in because of the Minister’s decision. A Galway couple said their hopes for having children are "indefinitely on pause until we move to a space larger" as new guidelines for smaller apartments are introduced. Mr. Ó Murchú and his fiancée, Laura, live in a mobile home in Galway that measures just under 37 sq. m, which is bigger than the Minister’s new studios. Mr. Ó Murchú says he cannot imagine making this space any smaller as it would be “mentally taxing”. He said, “We want to start our family, and have children. However, that is indefinitely on pause until we move to a space larger than here.” Where are the spaces where families, couples and people who want to have children be will be able to do so, particularly in Dublin? The article also looked at the views of people with disabilities and access to housing and spoke to Pamela Kavanagh, head of communications at the Irish Wheelchair Association. She said wheelchair users will be further pushed out of the housing market if the minimum size of a studio apartment decreases and that there is “very minimal housing stock available for people with disabilities”, whether they are looking to privately rent or purchase a wheelchair-accessible home. The article quotes her as saying, "Housing is one of the biggest issues” for wheelchair users, acting as “the main barrier towards true independence”. Ms Kavanagh said the Irish Wheelchair Association had yet to be consulted on the guidelines. Were these new guidelines ever discussed with that association? If not, why not? It is very clear these changes will have very long-term negative implications. Would the Minister pay €2,500 to live in these units? I doubt he would and I doubt that other Ministers in his Government or the Taoiseach would, yet he is telling the people of Ireland to do so. They are not homes. They will be cash cows for developers and other vested private interests that have been lobbying for this kind of barefaced deregulation for years. The Minister is taking away the space to start a family, have a pet, have space for a bookshelf, have sunlight and access to the outside, have space to entertain friends and family and have a full and dignified life. It has still not been clarified where the savings will come from in terms of €100,000 and whether those will be passed on in rents. This Government, and the previous Government, which is the same Government, has long said it wants to help people move out of their parents' box rooms but much like its inflated housing figures, it misled the public during the last election by failing to mention that for the 500,000 people stuck in their childhood box room, their only option would be to move into another box room, this time owned by a corporate investor, and they would be charged €2,500 a month for the privilege. These poorly designed, poorly thought-through concessions to the developers and corporate landlords that see homes as nothing more than commodities and investment assets will lead to greater inequality. I am not sure if the Minister has looked at their actual size. Has he seen the graphic of the tennis court in The Irish Times? It is nicely done and well worth a look. It shows how eight of these units can fit on a tennis court. I am sure the Minister knows a tennis court is not that big. These are not homes; they are micro-units for investor funds. It is a disgraceful decision and the Minister will regret it, and the people who live in them certainly will.

Sentiment score: 0.07

I appreciate the Minster's detailed response. He did not answer my questions on the consultation with the institute of planners, the architects or the Irish Wheelchair Association. It is deeply regrettable that they clearly were not consulted and there was not proper engagement with them. If there had been there would be a different outcome to this, so it is deeply regrettable. The Minister referenced people buying these apartments. How many people does he think bought a newly-built apartment in Dublin in the last couple of years? It is a handful. None of these apartments being built are going to be bought by anybody. They are all going to be build-to-rent or they will be social housing, and there is a massive question about micro-social housing units where people will be forced into overcrowding. Again, is this about jacking up numbers without concern for quality and liveability? I cannot remember whether it was the Tánaiste or someone else who was talking about how this is a measure that will help people buy their own home. They will get one of these apartments and they will go on the property ladder. Nobody is going to be buying these apartments. They are not for sale. They are all build-to-rent. It is delusional, and actually downright misleading, to say anybody is going to be buying these apartments. The Government is not building apartments for sale. Nobody can buy a home. No young person can buy any of the new homes that are being built in Dublin. In my constituency it is apartments to rent at rents no-one can afford. That is the fundamental problem and there was and is an alternative. We have set it out. With the homes for Ireland savings scheme we could be leveraging the billions that are in savings accounts – which is private finance – into affordable housing. The Taoiseach and the Minister have said we are putting forward no solutions and the State needs private finance, so there is a source of private finance. It is done in France through the Livret A scheme, through the accounts, and it funds billions in affordable and social housing delivery. Michelle Norris of the Housing Commission said very clearly this could be a solution and my question is why is the Minister not putting into that the effort he is putting into ramming through this legislation.

Sentiment score: -0.05

Ah, come on.

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