The Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, has been urged to "call the builders' bluff" on the social and affordable housing provisions of last year's Planning and Development Act.
Mr Philip Jones, president of the Irish Planning Institute, said yesterday it was well-known that the builders "did their best to stop the adoption of Part V [of the Act], with a sustained PR and lobbying campaign.
"I have little doubt that, despite not winning the constitutional argument, many of the builders still have a rooted objection to the social and affordable housing provision and will seek to stymie its application," he said.
Addressing the IPI's annual conference, Mr Jones noted that the legislation had imposed a two-year lifespan on planning permissions for new housing so as to ensure that builders and developers would not try to evade Part V.
But now, "flushed with their success in persuading the Minister for Finance to dump the proposed 60 per cent capital gains tax regime for the sale of development land", they were seeking to have the time limit removed.
"Isn't it time that our developers saw themselves as part of the general community and worked for the interests of everyone, not just their own profits? Isn't it time that they considered themselves part of society, not apart from it?"
Mr Jones suggested that the lifespan of planning permissions should be extended beyond the two-year limit only if builders agreed to allocate up to 20 per cent of a development site for social and affordable housing.
"My point to the Minister today is - ignore the calls for the abolition of the two-year limit, but provide a mechanism that will remove uncertainty for those builders who are prepared to live up to their social responsibilities."
Mr Ciaran Ryan, of the Construction Industry Federation, pointed out that many builders were already working in partnership with local authorities, and they could do without the uncertainty engendered by the two-year limit.
Ms Norita Griffin, assistant principal officer at the Department of the Environment, said the purpose of Part V was to ensure that local authorities would have access to a supply of development land for their own housing programmes.
She told the conference that all 33 county and city councils were working on their housing strategies, and should have them completed by the July 31st deadline for implementing Part V.
The conference also heard that Dublin Corporation's housing list has grown from 4,377 households in 1991 to 7,420 this year. Forty per cent of those on the list were living in overcrowded conditions and 28 per cent were homeless.
Mr Philip Maguire, the corporation's housing manager, said 90 per cent of the applicants for social housing in the city had a gross income of less than £10,000 per annum. This "clearly justifies seeking the maximum 20 per cent quota".
