The president of the Irish Planning Institute has asked the Environment Minister to 'call builders' bluff' on avoiding compliance with social housing legislation.
Speaking at the National Planning Conference in Kilkenny, Philip Jones said it was time for Irish developers and builders to work for the interests of everyone and not just their own profits.
Part V of the Planning and Development Act 2000 says each local authority must, by August 2001, adopt a housing strategy, and include in its development plans a provision that up to 20% of either the development land or houses developed on the land be made available for social and affordable housing purposes.
Mr Jones said planners had seen a rush of planning applications submitted over the last year or so in order to avoid the social and affordable housing provision.
He said he had little doubt that many builders still objected to the provision, and would seek to stymie its application in practice in the case of individual planning applications.
Mr Jones called on Minister Dempsey to ignore builders' calls for the abolition of the two-year limit on planning permission granted after August 1999.
Instead, he asked that a mechanism be provided that would remove the uncertainty for those builders who were prepared to live up to their social responsibilities.
