New guidelines allowing for higher-density housing will not work without a range of additional measures to protect the consumer, it was claimed yesterday.
The draft measures, announced this week by the Minister of State for Housing and Urban Renewal, Mr Robert Molloy, were welcomed by the Construction Industry Federation, which said they would increase the supply of houses, and by Fine Gael.
But others claimed the guidelines, if introduced in isolation, would only have the effect of increasing developers' profits.
The Labour Party environment and local government spokesman, Mr Eamon Gilmore, said density was only one issue and should only be addressed in tandem with the needs of the community.
He said the new guidelines contained only a "passing reference" to social issues, such as the need for schools, shops and recreational facilities to be included from the outset in any new development.
Mr John Gormley, the Green Party Dail spokesman on the environment, said as they currently stood the guidelines would amount to "a blank cheque for developers".
His party had no problem with higher-density sites which were developed in proximity to good public transport facilities and were not adjacent to existing smaller buildings. Safeguards needed to be built into any regime.
Ms Maura O'Neill, regional manager for the south of the housing advice agency, Threshold, said the new measures would do nothing to stop "the profiteering we're seeing from developers at the moment".
She said the prices currently being fetched for houses had nothing to do with production costs, and there was nothing in the guidelines to make developers pass on the lower costs per unit of higher-density projects.
However, Mr Ciaran Ryan, head of planning with the Construction Industry Federation, said simple supply-and-demand economics dictated that an increase in the supply of houses would result in lower prices. "It's long been accepted that we have to address the supply side of the equation and we very much welcome this announcement."
The Fine Gael housing spokesman, Mr Brian Hayes, said the guidelines should result in more effective use of the land available and would not necessarily "lead to skyscrapers". But three out of four of Dublin's local authorities had completed development plans in the past 12 months and the guidelines should have been brought forward earlier.
