Despite the Government's best efforts to deal with the housing crisis, the problem is not going away. This week's revelation about the fall-off in housing starts is likely to prove disturbing not only for the Department of the Environment, but for first-time buyers desperate to buy. The one ray of hope now for the Government rests on its plans, due to be announced shortly, to fast track the whole planning process. A number of Strategic Development Zones for housing, as suggested by Peter Bacon last year, are to be implemented, where action plans have already been approved by the local authorities. Most of these are likely to be in the outer Dublin suburbs, where most of the housing demand rests.

Once these zones have been established, housebuilders are guaranteed to get planning permission within 58 weeks at the outside. That may seem a long time, but considering that it is currently taking the best part of two or three years to get on site, it is at least a step in the right direction. The designation of SDZs to meet the housing demand will mean that objectors will only be able to take issue with the overall planning scheme, not to subsequent planning applications.

When the DOE call a press conference shortly to announce the details of the scheme, it will be no great surprise if it also signals its intention to drop the highly controversial two-year time frame on planning permissions for residential developments which builders are finding highly frustrating, particularly where sites are capable of taking a few hundred houses. However, builders won't have it all their own way under the new fast track procedure. To prevent hoarding, those builders who fail to make a planning application within three months or to build within six months will have to pay an annual tax of £3,000 (€3,809) per site.