Minister for the Environment Dick Roche must think voters have goldfish-like memories if he expects them to be impressed by a pre-election promise to compulsorily acquire building land from owners who fail to develop it. This is the Government that announced - and then withdrew - a tax explicitly designed to penalise those who hoarded building land. Why should a compensation-based approach be any more effective in providing social and affordable housing?
The promised legislation is unlikely to see the light of day until after the general election, although Mr Roche assures us that work on drafting the provisions of a Bill has been put in hand. The measure will only affect land already zoned or designated, where the owners have failed to develop it or allowed it to be developed for housing. Compensation is likely to be well in excess of that envisaged by the Kenny report of 1973, where the cost of agricultural land, plus one-quarter, was suggested as a fair price.
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has declared on a number of occasions that a small group of developers control a large percentage of the rezoned land in the Dublin region and, by withholding it from the market, are artificially increasing both its value and the price of houses. Recent reports from the building industry itself suggest a growing shortage of housing in Dublin. And there is anecdotal evidence that many Leinster farmers have sold "options to develop" to extremely wealthy individuals.
Eight years ago, as property prices started to go through the roof, the Government decided to tackle these issues. The then minister for the environment Noel Dempsey introduced a courageous and enlightened piece of legislation that required developers to set aside 20 per cent of sites for social and affordable housing. To encourage early development, planning permissions would lapse after two years and have to be renewed. And a penal tax of 60 per cent on hoarded development land was announced by the Department of Finance as an anti-speculative measure.
The tax on hoarded land was the first to go. Once the election was over, it was followed by the two-year planning rule. Then, local authorities were allowed to take money in lieu of houses or building land from developers. And the shortage of social and affordable housing worsened. With a record like that, this Government has a credibility problem. Many of these concessions to developers took place on the watch of Mr Roche's predecessor, Martin Cullen. But there is no evidence to show a fundamental change in attitude.