Sharp exchanges over property claim

A claim by Mr Ciaran Cuffe (Green Party, Dún Laoghaire), that property developers were influencing Government policy led to sharp exchanges with the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen.

Mr Cuffe claimed that Mr Cullen had given into friends in the construction industry in the area of housing.

"The Minister is listening to his developer friends who are contributing to the coffers of Fianna Fáil."

Mr Cullen challenged Mr Cuffe to withdraw the remark, adding that it was "an outrageous suggestion, unbecoming of a deputy in the House." When the Leas-Cheann Comhairle, Mr Seamus Pattison, said that Mr Cuffe's remark amounted to a political charge, Mr Cuffe said: "I stand over it and my party stands over it."

Mr Cullen remarked: "This is typical nonsense from the Greens. There is no basis for it." Mr Cuffe said that instead of following the European model of social integration, the Minister was taking his cue from the "gated and guarded enclaves" of North America. "That is not an appropriate housing model for this country and we should not follow it. Within the Planning and Development Act 2000, there were three choices available to developers regarding the provision of social and affordable housing. They could give land, sites or houses.

"The Minister is now allowing two huge cop-outs in this Bill - land elsewhere or money. That is not visible. How are councillors expected to know what is happening behind closed doors?"

Mr Cullen said the Bill was about housing supply and removing obstacles so that there could be a high level of output of all types of housing.

"I have had extensive discussions and heard proposals from local authorities all over the country who have all said they want to remove the rigidities in the way we approach the social and affordable housing measure in this country.

"They urged us to look at the UK model to what is happening. A 30 per cent provision is in place there and the volume being created in the marketplace and social integration delivered on a basis that is far less rigid than that contained in the previous Bill."