Ireland entering a ‘much more difficult phase’ of housing provision, construction body warns

Politicians will this week be warned that Ireland is entering a “much more difficult phase of housing provision” as much of the land zoned for residential development that is connected to services like water and electricity has been activated or built on.

The Construction Industry Federation’s (CIF) director general designate Hubert Fitzpatrick is expected to make the remarks at a meeting of the Oireachtas housing committee on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Uisce Éireann, formerly known as Irish Water, is to use the same meeting to highlight concerns over the “complicated and expensive process” of securing final consents for their infrastructure projects.

ESB Networks is also due to appear before TDs and Senators as the committee examines issues surrounding infrastructure provision and residential developments amid the ongoing housing crisis.

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Mr Fitzpatrick’s opening statement says that the provision of infrastructure on zoned residential lands is “a critical component of housing delivery”.

He says that, in recent years, housing has been delivered on lands zoned in previous local authority development plans and in many instances already serviced with critical infrastructure like water, wastewater, electricity, roads and public transport.

‘Difficult phase’

However, he adds: “In our experience in more recent times a significant amount of the serviced and zoned lands for residential development have now been activated or built on and we are now entering a much more difficult phase of housing provision.”

He continues: “This has not been helped by a very tight zoning regulatory process introduced as part of the National Planning Framework.”

According to Mr Fitzpatrick: “In many locations there is a lack of forward planning for infrastructure or a delayed provision that is essential to the delivery of new homes.”

He says that the capital budget allocated in the National Development Plan needs to be invested in key projects as soon as possible to ensure that the housing targets aspired to in the Government’s Housing For All plan can be met.

Separately, Niall Gleeson, the chief executive of Uisce Éireann, will tell the committee that his organisation processed pre-connection enquiries associated with 116,647 homes last year.

It enabled enabled 4,250 connections to water services infrastructure associated with more than 25,000 homes. His opening statement adds: “We see all of these numbers trending upwards in first half of 2023.”

Mr Gleeson is to raise concerns over the planning and consenting regime, saying that the successful, timely delivery of water and wastewater infrastructure and services has “a critical dependence on the effective operation of the Irish planning system”.

Uncertainty

He says the planning system works well at local authority level but that “securing final consent for our infrastructure projects is a complicated and expensive process with a high degree of uncertainty on timelines and related costs”.

He says Uisce Éireann is urgently calling for the “prioritisation of key enabling strategic infrastructure that will support economic growth including the delivery of housing”, describing this as “a triage system when entering the planning system.”

Uisce Éireann is also seeking “appropriate powers to complete its functions” particularly in relation to compulsory purchase orders, taking-in-charge and exempted developments.

Mr Gleeson also says that at present Uisce Éireann is required to apply for a number of different licenses as part of the planning process and that this does not happen concurrently, casuing delays to the consenting process.

He says a solution to this issue would be to have one lead authority coordinating the consenting process for public infrastructure, carrying out assessments, coordinating joint oral hearings if necessary, and ensuring concurrent and consistent decisions.